PMS price: Those importing PMS at lower price dumping substandard products in Nigerian market — Dangote alleges
…As NMDPRA refutes allegation of having no laboratory to test imported products
The Dangote Refinery has lamented that those importing petrol popularly known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at a lower price are responsible for sub-standard Petroleum products in the Nigerian market.
The Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina in a statement yesterday made this allegation in response to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) on the controversy trailing the price of PMS by the refinery.
Expectations were high when the Dangote Group announced the roll out of PMS which many Nigerians expected would to an extent reduce the rising price of the product in Nigeria, but that has not been the case since the indigenous refinery started selling petrol in the country leading to various speculations by Nigerians and stakeholders.
According to the Dangote Group, it alleged that IPMAN, PETROAN, and other associations claiming that they can source for the product at a lower price elsewhere are importing substandard products.
“We benchmark our prices against international prices and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports. If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.”
The Group went on further to blame the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
“Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country,” It stated.
Explaining the rationale behind its pricing template, the Dangote Group said, “Post deregulation, NNPC set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks.
“In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity or the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased.”
The Group further lamented that international actors are out to frustrate local refining capacity.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production.
“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy. For example, the US and Europe have had to impose high tariffs on EVs and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.
“While we continue with our determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum products in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty,” the statement concluded.
Responding to the allegations of not having a laboratory to test imported Petroleum products, the Head of Public Affairs at NMDPRA, Mr George Ene-Ita in a conversation with NewsDirect yesternight refuted the allegation. “We have a laboratory to test all products that come into the country. That’s not true at all,” he said.
