The Dangote Refinery has reduced its ex-depot price for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) to ₦835 per litre, a third price cut in less than six weeks.
This new rate, down from N865 per litre just six days ago, represents a ₦30 drop and reflects a 3.5% decrease from the previous price. It is also ₦45 lower than the ₦880 per litre price sold by the facility last Wednesday.
This price cut marks Dangote’s third downward adjustment in under six weeks.
A notice sent to customers on Wednesday confirmed the change, which includes charges by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The $20bn Lagos-based refinery informed its marketers and customers of the slash on Wednesday.
Checks into petroleumprice.ng also confirmed that the private refinery reduced its gantry price to ₦835 on Wednesday afternoon.
Filling stations like MRS Oil & Gas, Ardova Plc, Heyden, and others with special agreements with the Dangote Refinery are expected to reduce their pump price to below ₦900 to reflect the marginal reduction in the ex-depot price of the premium commodity.
In an official statement released later, the refinery’s spokesman Anthony Chiejina confirmed the reduction of the gantry price of petrol from ₦865 to ₦835, adding that filling stations with special arrangement with the company would sell a litre of petrol for ₦890 in Lagos.
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The price reduction by the private refinery followed a meeting between representatives of the Dangote Refinery and the Minister of Finance Wale Edun last week.
At the end of the meeting, the government said that the naira-for-crude was still in effect and that the initiative was not a temporary measure but a “key policy directive designed to support sustainable local refining”.
The government also said the initiative is still in effect and will continue immediately, overruling the decision of the NNPCL under its former boss Mele Kyari which tenured the initiative.
For decades, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has been faced with intractable energy challenges, no thanks to an epileptic power supply that significantly affects productivity levels.
All the state-owned refineries were non-operational for decades until recently. Before the production of refined products by the Dangote Refinery, the country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Prices of petrol have risen fivefold since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ₦200/litre to around ₦1000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.