By Lateef Adegbite And Elizabeth Chukwuma
Fears that Aliko Dangote, the Kano state born multi-billionaire business mogul and Chairman of the North American country of the United States, USS, US, 20 million, Dangote Refinery Limited, a subsidiary of Dangote Industry, with a capacity to process 650,000b/d Crude , located at Lekki Free Trade Zone, LKFZ, Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre, may sell its produced Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, cheaper than the one purchased from the offshore refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, now baptized Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, signed into Law by former President Muhammmadu Buhari, on August 2020, may have forced Mele Kolo-Kyari led Company to speak out.
Note that Officials of Dangote Refinery and NNPCL, penultimate week, were said to have been holding talks over the sale of its processed PMS, since it produced the first batch on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, and ready to hit the market. There are indications that both the major and Independent Petroleum marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, might be lifting the product from the multi-billion dollar Dangote refinery on Sunday, September 15, 2024, amidst scarcity of the product as the foreign suppliers are no longer ready to give the product on credit to NNPCL, over an unsettled US$6 billion debt.
In spite of the fact that NNPCL, has failed to meet the country’s petrol demands, as Nigerians look forward to the Dangote refinery, which processing capacity is more that the combined processing capacity of 450,000b/d of the Federal Government owned refineries that currently works in bits and fits to fill the vacuum, the oil octopus may not have found it funny.
The oil cabal, who had taken advantage of the too many layers in NNPCL, to swap its 450,000b/d, crude allocation, meant for processing at the PortHsrcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, over the years may have known that the game is up that they have cautioned Nigerians not to think that the multi-billion dollar Dangote refinery which had started humming to produce petrol will sell below the depot price of N700.00 or market price of N897.00 per litre at the retail filling stations.
In 2021, the NNPCL, was said to have exchanged crude oil at N2.6 trillion for refined Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, popular, diesel, Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK, or Kerosene and Aviation fuel, as reported by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Olufemi Soneye, NNPCL, spokesperson, who may have spoken the mind of Mele Kolo Kyari, the Group Managing Director, when he said that ‘’the pricing of Petrolum Products, form the Dangote refinery and other local refineries including the government owned plants would be determined by global market forces’’.
The NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, was emphatic that there is no guarantee of the Dangote refinery is going to sell its products lower than the amount associated with domestic refining the products in the country. The NNPCL’s top official, who could not hide his feelings was said to have made it clear to those that cares to listen that perol and other products from the local refineries would be ‘’determined by market forces’’ .
Henry Adigun, an energy expert , had oborated NNPCL’s claims that the products from the Dangote refinery and other local refineries will not sell a litre of petrol below the pump price at the retail outlets of the Nigeria oil octopus, across the country because’’ it is a United States, dollar – dominated business’’, noting that multi-billionaire business mogul who would not want the Company to run at a loss would want to fix the price of petrol and other products produced at the refinery at the level where it could still make profit to settle its bills and still import crude to blend with the Local crude supplies.
The Dangote refinery would still import foreign crude because it is a single –train refinery. The energy expert was said to have given other reasons why the Dangote refinery products may not sell below the imported petroleum products of NNPCL, because Dangote had secured the foreign loan from the Multi-lateral Financial Institutions used in building the refinery in dollars which has to be back in dollars and not in naira.
Despite the controversy surrounding the price at which Dangote Refinery Ltd and other local refineries might what to sell their products, Pat Utomi, a Professor and Political Economist, would want the Nigerian Government to take a cue from the US, which subsidizes Agriculture to make food available in the country at affordable rate to subsidize petrol price used by Nigerians instead of allowing market forces to determine the price at this present time that people are facing had times.
The Political Economist who fears that now Nigerians are already struggling with high costs of living after Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration economic reforms to remove petrol subsidy and unify the country’s official and parallel, poplar, Black market exchange rates on the advise of the World Bank and the International Monetary Funds, IMF, which drove a spike on inflation, may further ‘’triple the price of the product in some states , ‘’ With a knock-on effect on food and transport costs’’ . He had blamed the Nigerian political class for the pains currently being experienced by Nigerians lately over the hike in petrol price.
The Nigerian President was said to have told the Nigerian Communities in the Middle East country of Saudi Arabia and the Asian country of China , at different times that ‘’the removal of petrol subsidy was basically ‘’to ensure that Nigeria did not go bankrupt, and to reset the economy , described as ‘’a pathway to growth’’.
But the Leadership of Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERRAP, Would not agree with the President. Describing as’’ unconstitutional ‘’, the sudden increase in the pump price of petrol, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, by NNPCL, Kalawole Oluwadare, Deputy Director , SERRAP, has asked the former Lagos state governor, to direct Lateef Fagbemi , a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and minister o Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, to probe the allegations of corruption and mismanagement in he NNPCL, , including the spending of the reported $300million bailout funds., collected from the government in August , 2024 and the $6billion debt it owes the offshore refineries.
