25 million liters of the Dangote Automotive Gas Oil have been distributed by independent marketers since it launched,and in the past three months the refinery has been putting out petroleum.
It has been gathered that, the firm is currently looking for marketers to join the 20bn oil and gas industry as it prepares to go into full time operations in the month of July.
At the time, plant managers and dealers verified the development, saying that the factory had begun selling diesel the week before.
Marketers are eager to distribute the PMS from the refinery too.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria have agreed to register with the home based refinery.
And they also agreed to the continuous lifting of petrol from the facility, saying that this has made stable the price of the product and its sufficient supply and distribution since the refinery started functioning.
It could be noted that, After the Dangote refinery introduced diesel to the Nigerian market in late March 2024, the price of the diesel fell to approximately N1,200 per liter and it has been confirmed to be available through out the country.
Speaking on how available and stable the Dangote product is,chief Ukadike Chinedu, the nations public relations officer told a correspondent from Punch that up to 25 million liters of t”Automotive Oil and Gas have Bee successfully distributed by IPMAN throughout the nation.
He said “Independent marketers are registering with Dangote, and many of us have lifted a lot of product from Dangote’s depot. I’m aware of so many marketers who have registered with the Dangote refinery.
“I can also confirm that independent marketers have loaded over 25 million litres of diesel since the refinery started the domestic sale of diesel to downstream oil sector operators in Nigeria.”
Oil marketers revealed that the refinery had started distributing diesel to domestic marketers.
The national president of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, spoke to a correspondent about this saying, “They started pumping out diesel to marketers since last week. They also promised to sell aviation fuel soon. Some of my members confirmed this to me after making a purchase,”
Maigandi also said that the operations of the refinery is centered around beating down the cost of fuel, as the commodity was once sold at a high cost of N1700 per liter.
He said,”The price of diesel is going to fall because of the release of products from Dangote Refinery. In fact, it is already coming down in Lagos.”
And this has already happened as the refinery was able to beat the price from N1700 to N1200, although officials working at the refinery have not disclosed any information about the plant, dealers revealed on Saturday that marketers are ready to buy diesel from the plant with very high hopes that it would help slash down the price of the commodity.
“Marketers are loading more products from the plant and are eager to begin the lifting of PMS from the refinery, since the Chairman of the group has said that PMS should hit the market in July,” Ukadike explained.
Further on, he stated that, “I must say that it is a good thing to know that PMS is being finalised for release from that plant. This is because since Dangote diesel came into the market the price of diesel has not crossed the N1,200/litre mark.
“Independent marketers even in far away northern states are selling diesel at N1,200/litre at the pumps. So the coming of Dangote has slowed down the skyrocketing price of diesel. Now we are expecting PMS by July and this will end the importation of petroleum products.”
While this is a very good development for Nigerians, recall that the founder of the Dangote refinery revealed that a group of criminals who he referred to as ‘mafia’ tried stopping the refinery from being developed countless times.
The business guru stated that, while he was building the refinery, he bore it in mind that there would always be fights from people who maliciously have a grip on the oil industry in Nigeria, referring to himself as a ‘fighter’ he said he was ready for what ever this group was bringing to the table.
“Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact,” he said.
“But I’m a person that has been fighting all my life. You know, so I think it’s part of my life to fight,” Dangote added.
“As a matter of fact during the COVID period, some of the international banks really were looking forward to making sure that they push us into default of our loans so that the project will just be dead. And that didn’t happen with the help of banks like Afreximbank.”
In Addition, Dangote added that he had paid back $2.4bn of the $5.5bn loan which he took to help aid a smooth and faster development of the refinery.
The business man also revealed his intentions of venturing into the steel market, his aim in this sector is to utilise solely Nigerian produced steel.
