KEY POINTS
- Dangote has stopped selling petrol to fuel importers.
- Marketers are challenging the restriction in court.
- The dispute centres on fuel quality and imported petrol.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has stopped selling Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, to major oil marketers that continue to import petroleum products into Nigeria.
The decision marks a fresh escalation in the growing dispute between the refinery and fuel importers over the quality of petrol sold in the Nigerian market and the blending of products from different sources.
An official of the Dangote refinery confirmed the development, saying the facility would no longer supply petrol to marketers who import fuel and potentially blend it with petrol produced by the refinery.
The official said the refinery was concerned that its Euro-5 petrol, which it describes as high-quality fuel, could be mixed with imported products of lower or uncertain quality.
“We are not selling petrol to those who are importing,” the source said, adding that the refinery did not want its products to be blended with imported petrol and subsequently associated with its brand.
Another source said the refinery was now focusing its petrol sales on independent petroleum marketers and other buyers that do not engage in fuel imports.
Marketers turn to imports
The decision could put pressure on major fuel marketers that depend partly on imported petrol to supplement domestic supplies.
Some marketers had already approached the courts seeking an order compelling the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to continue issuing them licences to import petrol.
The marketers reportedly feared that restricting their access to imported fuel while the Dangote refinery was also refusing to supply them could leave them with limited options for sourcing petrol.
The legal action therefore reflects the wider disagreement over whether fuel importation should continue alongside increasing domestic production from the Dangote refinery.
The refinery had previously warned that it could stop doing business with fuel importers whom it accused of blending its petrol with imported products.
Dangote has argued that such practices could make it difficult for consumers and regulators to determine which products were supplied directly by the refinery and which had been mixed or otherwise handled by third parties.
The refinery said it was investing heavily to produce high-quality petroleum products for the Nigerian market and did not want those products mixed with imported fuel of uncertain quality before being sold to consumers.
Its position is that such blending could ultimately affect the reputation of the refinery and create confusion about the quality of petrol associated with its products.
