Lagos, Nigeria – Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, NNPC Ltd, announced on Saturday that it will not be the exclusive purchaser of gasoline from the newly operational Dangote refinery. Instead, NNPC will only step in to buy the fuel if its market price exceeds the pump price in Nigeria.
The Dangote refinery, with a daily capacity of 650,000 barrels, began producing gasoline earlier this week. This development has raised hopes of ending Nigeria’s decades-long reliance on gasoline imports, which have cost the country billions of dollars annually.
Previously, the refinery had indicated that NNPC would be its sole customer for gasoline, and that the government would set the fuel’s price. However, NNPC clarified in its statement that Dangote would determine the price of its gasoline and could sell directly to marketers, who then distribute the fuel to retail stations.
Until now, NNPC has been the sole importer of gasoline into Nigeria. This week, NNPC increased the pump price of gasoline from an average of 617 naira ($0.3905) per liter to 855 naira. Dangote has pledged to initially supply 25 million liters of gasoline daily to the domestic market in September, increasing this quantity to 30 million liters starting in October.
“NNPC Ltd. will only fully purchase gasoline from the Dangote Refinery Ltd if the market prices of gasoline are higher than the pump prices in Nigeria,” the company stated.
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