There are strong indications that the price of petrol may soon drop across the country following the resumption of loading activities by petroleum marketers at the Dangote Refinery.
President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi, confirmed the development in an interview with DAILY POST on Monday.
Maigandi disclosed that members of the association have started loading petrol at the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, a move he said would help ease the ongoing fuel scarcity in parts of the country.
According to him, the increased availability of the product would naturally lead to a reduction in pump prices.
“Our members have started loading at the Dangote Refinery at N877 per litre, up from N820.
“We are expecting that with the availability of the product, the price would drop a little bit. I can’t say how much a drop is expected, but there would be a reduction in price,” he said.
Also speaking, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, said the return of supply from the refinery would help stabilise the market and bring relief to consumers.
“Whenever there are enough petrol products from Dangote Refinery or the Depot and the Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, the country should be wet enough to guarantee affordability,” he said.
Findings by DAILY POST indicated that several filling stations, including MRS, Emedeb, Optima, and Bova, have resumed fuel dispensing.
In recent weeks, the pump price of petrol had surged to between N940 and N965 per litre in parts of Abuja and other major cities, a situation that experts linked to a temporary supply disruption at the Dangote Refinery.
Last week, Vice President of Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, announced that over 310 million litres of petrol had been scheduled for loading at the refinery, assuring that supply would soon normalise nationwide.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other major marketers had earlier adjusted their pump prices from about N905–N910 per litre to between N940 and N965, reflecting the shortfall in supply that now appears to be easing.