Oil marketers have again written a letter to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery expressing their willingness to buy refined petroleum products from the $20 billion plant.
They disclosed this on Wednesday following Tuesday’s remarks by the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, that marketers were not buying products from the Lekki-based facility.
Dangote faulted the continued importation of petrol by oil marketers and NNPC Limited (NNPCL) despite the fact that the commodity was being produced by his refinery.
He raised the concern in Abuja on Tuesday after he was summoned by President Bola Tinubu, alongside the Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun, and the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari.
“I have a refinery. I’m not in the business of retail. If I’m in the business of retail then you can hold me responsible. But what I’m saying is that the retailers should please come forward and pick. If they don’t come forward and pick, what do you want me to do?
“So, I am expecting either the NNPCL or the marketers to stop importing; they should come and pick because we have what they need. And as they move, I will be pumping”, Dangote stated after the meeting with the President in Abuja.
Responding to this on Wednesday, oil dealers, under the aegis of the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) and their counterparts in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said they were willing to buy petrol from Dangote.
They specifically stated that they had approached the refinery a couple of times to express the interest of their members in lifting refined products from the plant.
PETROAN President, Mr. Billy Gillis-Harry told The PUNCH : “We have listened to him (Dangote) and as far as I’m concerned what he said is very strange to my hearing. PETROAN had written to him since 2022. We wanted to have a business meeting with him and understand the business dynamics.
“I sent the same letter to him (Dangote) today (Wednesday) to ask for a meeting, so, we can determine the modality of business. We cannot drive our tankers into the Dangote refinery to start buying products just like that. We must have a business meeting to determine the modalities, make our inputs and compare notes.
“We are willing to patronise Dangote but cannot do it in the air. We have to sit down and have a productive business meeting with him that is transparent enough. That is the challenge. So, we are willing but we can’t just fly into the plant and start loading products”.
On the refinery’s response, Gillis-Harry said: “Up till this moment, there has never been any positive response. Rather, all we get from them is that they repeatedly say to us that ‘we will meet’. But we never met. So, at what point are we going to meet and conclude the business? Let Nigerians know that PETROAN is willing to buy from him.
“If he has 500 million litres, we are willing to be one of the off-takers, for with the size of our membership and retailers scattered across the country, we are a very productive business mix that should be good for him. So, he also has the job to woo us and to get us to work with him”.
Gillis-Harry said that petrol retailers were awaiting the plant to fix a date for both parties to meet.
IPMAN National President, Abubakar Maigandi raised concerns over difficulties faced by his members in accessing fuel at the Dangote Refinery despite a N40 billion payment made through NNPCL.
Maigandi stated that despite NNPCL’s directive that IPMAN members pick up fuel at the Lagos-based refinery, some marketers waited with their trucks for four days without being able to load any product.
He expressed surprise at Dangote’s statement on Tuesday, claiming that the refinery had 500 million litres of petrol in stock and ready to supply the nation.
“If the refinery truly has 500 million litres, then there should be no reason our members couldn’t load after four days. We are willing to buy the product directly if the refinery is ready to sell to us, but for now, our members can’t access, it even after paying”, Maigandi said, while speaking on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
The refinery, touted as Africa’s largest, reportedly can produce over 30 million litres of fuel daily at full capacity.
During Tuesday’s visit to President Tinubu, Dangote reassured that the facility was prepared to meet local demands, emphasising that the stock in reserve could sustain the country for over 12 days without import.
Maigandi however countered that claim, pointing out that IPMAN members were yet to successfully load fuel from the refinery through the NNPCL arrangement, despite their readiness to purchase directly.
He added: “Instead of routing through NNPCL, Dangote should consider registering independent marketers directly. This would simplify the process and prevent such delays in accessing the product”.
