Nigeria’s $20bn Dangote refinery, inaugurated in May last year by former President Muhammadu Buhari, has begun the sale of Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, to oil marketers nationwide.
The refinery started selling diesel last week, according to dealers and facility officials confirmed this on Tuesday. Nigeria has long been dependent on costly imports to supply almost all of its fuel needs, but the $20 billion refinery is expected to change that, potentially shifting the industry’s power and profit dynamics to the point where Nigeria becomes a net exporter of fuel to other West African nations.
“They started pumping out diesel to marketers last week. They also promised to sell aviation fuel soon. Some of my members confirmed this to me after making a purchase,” the National President, of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, told our correspondent.
He predicted that Dangote’s action would cause the price of fuel to plummet, given that it had just reached a peak of almost N1,700 per litre. The surge in the price has led to a high cost of living with the effect of high production costs as Nigerian manufacturing industries largely depend on alternate sources of electricity, powering their power plants mostly with diesel.
“The price of diesel is going to fall because of the release of products from Dangote Refinery. It is already coming down in Lagos,” Maigandi stated.
Senior management of the company acknowledged that diesel was being sold to marketers, adding that Premium Motor Spirit, will soon be available for purchase.
The Dangote Refinery has encountered numerous obstacles in its efforts to supply refined products to the market. Built by the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, the refinery has the greatest nameplate capacity of any refinery in Africa and is situated on a peninsula close to the outskirts of Lagos, the commercial hub of the continent.