The Dangote Petroleum Refinery says only 3 percent of local oil marketers are purchasing refined petroleum products.

Devakumar Edwin, vice-president of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), spoke during an X space organised by Nairametrics.

He said due to the low patronage, the refinery is forced to export 97 percent of its refined products.

“The conglomerate of all the importers are refusing to buy from us. It is very strange that after putting up the refinery to supply the products locally, I have to export every diesel and jet fuel because they do not want to buy from us,” Edwin said.

“We started selling the diesel, we fixed the price, and it was lower than the prevailing market price. Then, we brought the price further down and they (marketers) wrote to the president complaining.”

‘WHY OIL MARKETERS WROTE TO TINUBU’

Edwin said the marketers complained that the refinery reduced the price of diesel and so “they said they do not want to buy from us”

Specifically, he said the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) wrote to President Bola Tinubu that the price cut affected their business “due to the large inventory of imported AGO”.

“I’m selling 2 percent to 3 percent to small traders who are willing to buy, while the rest 95 to 97% I’m forced to export,” he said.

The vice-president said the refinery may also be forced to export its petrol “if they are not willing to buy”.

“But to be very frank and straightforward, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has come forward,” Edwin said.

“They have been discussing. Athough the discussion has been going on for almost three weeks and it is not yet concluded, they are working to agree with us on the quantity of crude they can sell and they said they will monitor the products.

“They are going to have a team of 10 people sitting in the refinery. They will see the crude which we are going to receive, ensuring that everything is coming into the refinery, and they would watch whether we are producing and processing everything and then, they would watch whether we are giving back all the products.”

Dangote refinery commenced petrol production on September 3.

On the same day, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said the Dangote refinery is expected to supply 25 million litres of petrol daily in September and will subsequently increase this amount to 30 million litres daily from October.

On September 7, the NNPC denied reports that it intends to become Dangote refinery’s sole distributor following speculations that the national oil firm had planned to do so.

The company also said there is no guarantee that domestic refining would lead to lower prices compared to global parity pricing.

NNPC said Dangote refinery and any other domestic refinery are free to sell directly to any marketer on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, which is the current practice for all fully deregulated products.