Private depots in Lagos and nearby areas were empty yesterday since the Dangote Petroleum Refinery started sending out direct petrol supply.
Vanguard says that our correspondent found that private stores were empty because the operators thought they would gain from direct deliveries.
A source who asked to remain anonymous claimed, “The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started sending goods directly to marketers.” This is mostly why the depots have been running on skeleton crews.
Olatide Jeremiah, the CEO of Petroleumprice.ng, expressed the same thing: “The downstream petroleum sector is currently unstable because the new market leader (Dangote) is in charge.” The 1,000 trucks that leave on Monday have made things worse between depot owners and shops, which has led to a big drop in sales.
“For the first time, global oil prices are going up and depot prices are going down. This is the power of local market forces created by Dangote Refinery.” Overall, this change will push the sector to adopt best practices and lower prices at the pump.
In the meantime, Aliko Dangote, the President/Chief Executive of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, spoke at a conference on Monday to honor the first anniversary of the introduction of petrol from the refinery, which produces 650,000 barrels of oil per day. He added that the refinery has made Nigeria’s energy security better.
Dangote pointed out that Nigerians have had to wait in long lines for fuel since 1975. Since the refinery started selling gasoline on September 15, 2024, this problem has been getting better and better.
“We’ve been fighting fuel lines since 1975, but today Nigerians are seeing a new era,” he remarked.
Dangote talked about the many problems the refinery has had since it opened and how the corporation is still committed to Nigeria and Africa.
“The path has been hard since we wanted to change the downstream business in Nigeria. Some people thought we were stealing their food, but that’s not true. We have made our country and continent proud. Only two African countries were not importing petrol before, but sadly, they have started importing it again. He went on to say that this is bad for Africa.
Dangote said that the project was very risky and that it was hard to build the refinery. Experts in the field, investors, and government officials from both the US and other countries warned him over and over again that only sovereign nations took on such big refinery projects.
He said that if the project had collapsed, he would have lost all of his assets to lenders.
“The choice to develop the refinery was not easy. If things had gone wrong, lenders would have snatched our property. But we have faith in Nigeria and Africa, he continued.
About the Author
