Oil marketers have announced that they will begin transporting Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery next week.
Some marketers said their trucks were already being sent to the refinery, while others confirmed that their tankers would be ready to load by next week.
Dealers also mentioned they expect imported petrol to arrive before the end of the month. It was reported that vessels belonging to major oil marketers will bring in petrol to the country in the next 10 days.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the President of Dangote Group, had earlier stated that only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be allowed to transport PMS from the refinery at the moment.
However, some oil marketers revealed that they are already preparing to load petrol from the plant, with an expected daily supply of 25 million litres.
One marketer, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the loading process would start next week and that many others were planning to import PMS soon.
“This means the deregulation of PMS prices has set in fully. Nobody wants to be at the whims and caprices of NNPC again,” he added.
Beyond Boders also learned that while there is no agreement on the final price for Dangote’s petrol, the marketer suggested that the product might be sold for around N1,200 per litre, and that other major marketers were bringing in products to encourage competition.
Last week, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, confirmed that the downstream oil sector had been fully deregulated, meaning the government would no longer fix petrol prices.
Lokpobiri reassured Nigerians that there was enough petrol in the country to meet demand, urging them not to engage in panic buying.
As of now, the spokesperson for Dangote refinery, Tony Chiejina, has not responded to inquiries about the pricing of PMS from the refinery.
Meanwhile, NNPC’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, denied claims that NNPC had already started loading petrol from the Dangote refinery.
