Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest petroleum refinery, continues to face opposition from groups in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, who have long benefited from price manipulations in the petroleum sector.
Since its official commissioning in May 2023, hardly a month has passed without some oil sector stakeholders raising concerns about the refinery’s operations.
The refinery has been striving to make petroleum products more affordable for Nigerians as a way of cushioning the public.
However, this has not sat well with certain groups in the industry.
The latest opposition comes from the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), which expressed displeasure over Dangote Refinery’s plan to reduce petrol prices from ₦865 per litre to ₦841 in Lagos and the South West, and ₦851 in Abuja, Edo, and Kwara.
The refinery also plans to commence direct fuel distribution alongside the price cut.
In a statement on Saturday, DAPPMAN Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, argued that portraying Dangote Refinery’s repeated price reductions as patriotic gestures overlooks both their timing and their impact on the market.
According to Adewole, the price cuts were often timed when other importers had active cargoes at sea or in storage, creating price shocks that undermined competition and strained the finances of fellow market participants, including some of the refinery’s domestic customers.
He added that it was troubling that Dangote offered lower prices to international buyers while quoting higher rates for local offtakers. This, he said, contradicted the refinery’s claims of prioritising Nigerians and placed an additional burden on domestic businesses already struggling under tight margins.
On the ongoing dispute between Dangote and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Adewole said DAPPMAN was following developments with dismay.
“While the matter may not directly concern our Association, we are alarmed by the tone, trajectory, and escalation of this issue. Beyond the reputational risks to various market participants, we are deeply concerned about the potential impact this may have on ordinary Nigerians, particularly in a downstream environment still stabilising post-deregulation,” Adewole stated.
DAPPMAN also rejected the notion that Nigeria’s downstream stability rests solely on Dangote Refinery. Adewole stressed that the refinery currently supplies only 30–35% of national demand, with the balance provided by other marketers who continue to import and distribute products under the oversight of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
For decades, DAPPMAN members have invested in depots, trucking fleets, retail networks, and logistics to ensure uninterrupted fuel access across the country—even during periods of forex scarcity, subsidy transitions, insecurity, and economic downturns.
“These contributions deserve recognition, not erasure. We reject any insinuation that DAPPMAN members deal in substandard petroleum products. All imports undergo independent, regulator-accredited laboratory testing in accordance with NMDPRA protocols and global quality standards,” Adewole said.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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