The Dangote refinery has vehemently denied selling premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol at N898 per litre to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The denial following claims by Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of NNPC that the refinery sold Petrol to NNPC at N898 per litre.
DAILY GIST reported earlier that the Dangote refinery commenced petrol loading into NNPC trucks on Sunday.
According to Soneye, the NNPCL loaded over 70 trucks with premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the refinery on Sunday.
He noted that the initial loading was done at a price of N898 per litre, contradicting earlier reports that stated the price as N760 per litre.
“We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote Refinery today. The claim that we purchased it at N760 per litre is incorrect. For this initial loading, the price from the refinery was N898 per litre,” he said.
But a statement issued by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer at Dangote refinery said Soneye’s claim is false and misleading
READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898 per litre to the NNPCL.
This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedeviled the economy in the past 50 years.
We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.
It should also be noted that we sold the products to NNPCL in dollars with a lot of savings against what they are currently importing. With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature.
We assure Nigerians of availability of quality petroleum product and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country.”
The positions of the two oil stakeholders have cast new controversy around petrol pricing as Nigerians seek a reduction in PMS prices.
