Sopuruchi Onwuka

The highly hyped drop in the price of petrol at the MRS retail stations attributed to a pledge to the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is false after all.

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Our field reporters who went out on fact check Tuesday evening came back with zero confirmation of price drop at all MRS filling stations in the Ikeja and Alimosho council areas of Lagos.

At the stations visited by our field reporters, prices ranged from N879 to N886 per liter of petrol. Other allied petrol stations also sold within the same range even as some of the retail station operators claimed that they secure supply of products from any available source.

The findings came against claims from the Dangote Group that its refinery brought price relief to the market less than 24 hours after Aliko Dangote made the pledge.

The widely circulated press release published by most media houses amplifies the high-profile intrigues that came with the commissioning of Dangote Refinery which is currently struggling to assert its relevance to the local market.

Oracle Intelligence reports that following jumps in the prices of transportation fuels after deregulation of the domestic market, the expectation that the world’s largest single train refinery in Lagos would help bring down prices never materialized. Instead, prices for petrol toppled the N1000 per liter mark, forcing marketers to return to importation.

Dangote Refinery has since struggled to secure the loyalty of a faction of market players led by MRS Energy, which is closely linked to the Dangote Group. The chasm has since polarized the marketing groups in the country into camps aligned with sources of procurement, setting off a bitter price war between the local refiner and importers.

Given that marketers aligned with the Dangote Refinery do not incur freight, insurance, taxes, demurrage and sundry port charges; it is expected that they would sell at cheaper rates than marketers that benefit from syndicated imports.

Justifying high prices of locally refined products and hyping marginal deductions have been the subject of media releases regularly pumped out from the Dangote Refinery.

In the press statement of Monday, the company claimed that “filling stations operated by the refinery’s lead offtaker, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, have begun selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at N739 per litre in Lagos, down from N885, bringing immediate relief to commuters and businesses.”

The statement quoted Alhaji Dangote as pledging that ‘pump price of PMS would decline further” adding that “petrol would sell at no more than N740 per litre from Tuesday, starting in Lagos.”

The statemen also has it that “MRS, which operates over 2,000 filling stations nationwide, would be the first to implement the new pricing.” It also added that “the stations started the implementation on Monday to the delight of Lagos commuters.”

By Tuesday evening our reporters were unable to see a filling station selling petrol at N740 per liter.

Attempts to speak with the spokesman of Dangote Group, Mr Tony Chiejina, on our findings did not yield result as he declined to take his call.

Oracle Intelligence reports that global crude oil prices plunged early in the weak as international market sentiments responded to bright signals in the peace effort to end the Russia’s war in Ukraine. Prices of crude oil govern the prices of petroleum products, including transportation fuels, not Dangote’s pledges.

With the fall in crude prices which went under $60 per barrel on Tuesday, prices of refined products will naturally take a bow. And the price war between importers as well as Dangote Refinery will bring lower prices to the domestic market.

Thus, Dangote’s pledge to reduce price of petrol aligns with developments in the international market, not his voluntary will or generosity. Moreso, the pledged price drop is yet to drill down the market as reported by his media aides.