By Ahmed Aliyu
Reports indicates that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has again reduced its petrol price, slashing the ex-depot rate from N828 to N699 per litre.
Real-time market data published on Petroleumprice.ng on Friday showed that the refinery implemented another major downward review, cutting the Premium Motor Spirit benchmark price by N129 per litre — a 15.58 per cent reduction.
According to reports “The refinery has reduced petrol gantry price to N699 per litre.” This latest reduction of petrol price comes barely few days after the refinery’s Chairman, Aliko Dangote, restated his commitment to keeping domestic fuel prices reasonable and competitive despite global volatility and persistent smuggling along Nigeria’s borders.
He had said after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu on December 6, that prices would continue to fall as the refinery ramps up output and competes directly with imported products. He said, “Prices are going down. The reason why prices have to go down is that we have to also compete with imports. But luckily for us now, the smuggling has reduced, not totally.
“There is still quite a lot of smuggling because the price we have in Nigeria is about 55 per cent lower than the price of our neighbouring countries.”
He said petroleum products (diesel and petrol) “will continue to be sold in the market at a very reasonable price”.
“We are not here to make our $20 billion back quickly; it’s a long-term investment,” Dangote had said. The latest adjustment by Dangote has prompted multiple effects across private depots. Petroleumprice.ng reported reductions at several locations. Sigmund Depot is reported to have cut its ex-depot price by N4 to N824 per litre, Bulk Strategic reduced by N3, and TechnoOil implemented a sharper decrease of N15. Other depots, including A.A. Rano, NIPCO, and Aiteo, also made marginal adjustments in response to the new Dangote refinery new pricing template.
