• Pledges price stability during Yuletide festivities

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Africa’s leading petroleum refiner, Dangote Petroleum Refinery, has restated it resolve to sustain steady flow of key transportation fuels in the domestic market, assuring that its plant output capacity currently exceeds immediate to medium term demand.

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The company which announced plans for over 100 percent plant expansion just a week ago, also ensure that Nigerians continue to enjoy the cheapest transportation fuels in Africa.

Group Chief Brand and Communication Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Anthony Chiejina, declared in a media release available to Oracle Intelligence that the refinery’s operating goal is to guarantee national energy stability and consumer confidence.

He said the refinery currently loads out over 70 million liters of transportation fuels, comprising 45 million liters of the premium motor spirit popularly called petrol and the automotive gas oil also known as diesel.

The combined volume of both products which are primarily used for road transportation in Nigeria, he noted, exceeds Nigeria’s current daily demand.

The statement from Mr Chiejina tries to address supply concerns trailing the introduction of new fuel import taxes in the country; a development that has pitched proponents of free market competition against advocates of the Nigerian Content policy in the petroleum industry.

Whereas different marketing groups currently importing petroleum products from foreign refineries criticize the new fuel import taxes as slanting the field of competition in favor of local refiners including Dangote and other smaller scalable processing plants in the country; policy proponents contend that the new taxes have become necessary to enforce the twin Local Content and Nigeria First policies of the government.

While making reference to the raging debate in the public stage, Mr Chiejina stated that Dangote remains in collaboration with government’s regulatory agencies and its distribution partners to meet the energy needs of Nigerians.

He said the company’s robust production capacity guarantees local supply, enhances energy security and displaces significant import volumes, helping stabilize Nigeria’s exchange rate and strengthen the Niara.

By producing locally and displacing imports, Mr Chiejina stated, Dangote Refinery is assisting the domestic economic recovery effort by reducing foreign exchange outflows and increasing inflows. He alluded to the new import tariffs as necessary measure to protect domestic industries from unfair external competition and safeguard local production.

The new tariffs, he noted, would benefit local refiners and encourage fresh investments in the petroleum industry, strengthening Nigeria’s industrial base and creating more jobs. He warned that flooding the local market with products at unsustainable prices would discourage investments in new industries and undermine local production.

He pointed at Nigeria’s once booming local textile industry as illustration of the economic impact of unchecked importation, adding that ‘dumping’ engenders poverty, discourages industrialization and leads to loss of national revenue. He noted that Nigeria’s textile industry which was once leading employer of labor and creator of wealth is a clear sample of dumping effect.

Mr Chiejina urged the government regulators to also go beyond import tariffs to monitor the quality of fuel products imported into the country, warning that desperate players are bent on making profit by sabotaging well intentioned policies of the government.

In commending President Bola Tinubu on approving policies that transform and strengthen the domestic petroleum industry, Mr Chiejina stated that new tariffs align with the goals of creating stable congenial business environment that guarantees energy security.

Mr Chiejina argued that exposing the domestic fuel market to Asian and European refineries with robust production capacity would “would strangulate domestic refineries, cripple allied industries, and undermine the laudable policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration promoting industrial growth and economic stability.”

Mr Chiejina called for collective patriotism and responsibility among industry stakeholders in protecting the economy, adding that the Dangote Refinery is equipped with the requite technology and infrastructure to effectively displace fuel imports with local production, enhance supply chain stability and reduce pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves.

In addressing price concerns in the market as diversification of supplies appear to be limited, Mr Chiejina reiterated the earlier pledge of the president of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to keep supplies steady and prices stable during the Yuletide festivities. He pointed at the significant cut in petrol prices from N1,030 per liter in September 2024 to N851 per liter in September 2025 following implementation of Direct Delivery Scheme by Dangote Refinery.

In demonstrating the refinery’s impact on affordability and supply stability, Mr Chiejina noted that whereas international prices of petrol in some West African countries range between $1.20 and $2.00 per liter, Nigerians continue to enjoy same product at only $0.60 per liter.