The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, or IPMAN, has stated that it is still negotiating arrangements for the lifting of fuel from Dangote Refinery, amid a recent controversy surrounding the lifting.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the president of Refibery, has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, or NNPCL, and other petroleum marketers of importing fuel from foreign refineries while avoiding his facility to pick up goods.

500 million litres of fuel are stored at his refinery, Dangote continued, enough to meet local demands.

However, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, IPMAN’s Public Relations Officer, informed Vanguard that discussions with the refinery are still ongoing and that independent marketers have not yet started direct sourcing from the Dangote Refinery.

“The processes are underway, and I’ll update you once they’re finalised,” he said, adding that we haven’t gotten any items from Dangote Refinery yet.

“Independent marketers do not yet have access to the product,” he continued. Although our conversations are moving forward, I believe Dangote is taking a methodical approach to marketing.

In a similar development, he stated that market forces should not be taken as a surprise by the increase in the price of fuel at the pump that NNPCL implemented two days ago.

“People shouldn’t be surprised,” he said. Demand and supply variables are what drive deregulation, and the selling price will depend on where you get your supplies.

In the meantime, merchants have mostly kept their October 2024 prices the same, even though the pump price markup in Abuja increased by 3% to N1, 060 per litre.

NIPCO (N1,115), Adova Plc (N1,125), and the majority of individual marketers (N1,150-N1,230) maintained the rates set at the beginning of October, while large marketers like Conoil and TotalEnergies continued to sell at N1,109, according to Vanguard’s checks conducted in the nation’s capital.

In response to the Federal Government’s decision to discontinue the petrol subsidy, NNPC earlier increased the price of petrol by 14.8% on 9 October 2024, from N897 to N1,030 per litre. Expectations that the “crude-for-Naira” agreement between the Federal Government and Dangote Refinery would lower pump prices beginning on October 1, 2024, were defied by this spike.

The most recent increase followed a previous one on September 3, 2024, when NNPC increased the price of gasoline by 45%, from N617 to N897 per litre.