Following the plant’s announcement that only the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited will currently lift the product from the refinery, oil marketers are waiting to find out the price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, declared that the 650,000-capacity oil refinery had started producing gasoline on Tuesday, marking the official launch of PMS.
However, dealers operating under the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria’s auspices claimed that they had yet to receive word from the refinery regarding the price of gasoline.
“We have not received any notice about its PMS price because he categorically stated that the NNPC is the sole off-taker of the product, which to us came as a surprise,” National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Ukadike Chinedu, stated.
He added, “We had expected Dangote to open up the market for proper competition. This shows that all this while the NNPC has been waiting for Dangote to release products, as it had reduced PMS importation.
“However, we are still waiting for them to tell us the price, but this, of course, will have its effect on the pricing of the product because the cost of the commodity has increased at NNPC retail stations.”
Following the decision of the NNPC to raise the pump prices at fuel stations, Nigerians have been hit with intense fuel scarcity in various parts of the country. According to Punch, as of 11 am on Tuesday, the Mobil filling station in the CBD of the FCT sold fuel at N989/liter. Meanwhile, prices in other fuel stations ranged between N1000 and N1100.
In Abuja, fuel scarcity has caused the blockage of major roads in the country’s capital, as vehicles have been parked in long queues with drivers in search of fuel. This has left many passengers, including 9- to-5ivers and business owners, stranded and forcing some to walk to their destinations and others to stay back at home.
However, the federal government has denied any plans to increase petroleum prices.
The NLC has come out to express its shock in regarding this nationwide problem. It made its grievances known in a statement signed by its President, Joe Ajaero.
The NLC President, however, assured that appropriate organs of the Congress will sit to have a meeting and take necessary decisions.
Part of the statement read, “We are filled with a deep sense of betrayal as the Federal Government clandestinely increases the pump price of PMS. One of the reasons for accepting N70,000 as the national minimum wage was the understanding that the pump price of PMS would not be increased even as we knew that N70,000 was not sufficient,” the Ajaero said.
“In the coming days, the appropriate organs of the Congress will be meeting to take appropriate decisions, which will be made public,” he assured.
The Congress demanded, among other things, the immediate removal of the petrol pump price, the release of protesters who were detained, and the cancellation of the 25% increase in the electricity tariff.
