The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has revealed that its ex-depot price of petrol is N990 per litre for trucks and N960 for ships, insisting that petrol sold cheaper than what it offers is a substandard product.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) had claimed that importing petrol was cheaper when compared to buying the product from Dangote Refinery.

But in a statement signed by Anthony Chiejina, group chief branding and communication officer, on Sunday night, the refinery emphatically stated that it is only substandard product that can be imported at cheaper rates than what it offers.

The statement read: “Both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery. 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. Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.

“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 the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased.”