The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has informed Nigerians of the operations of a new depot contracted by an unknown foreign trading business to blend substandard petroleum products in Nigeria. It said the depot, which is close to its activities, was rented with the intention of combining inferior items that would be dumped into the market and purchased by naive Nigerians. Anthony Chiejina, the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of Dangote Group, made the claim in a press statement on Sunday, emphasizing that the action endangers the nation's refining business and public safety. The comment came in reaction to statements attributed to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and other groups claiming the price of imported fuel is lower than what is marketed.

It emphasized that any marketer claiming to sell PMS at a cheaper price than the present pricing is importing subpar items in collusion with overseas traders to flood the country with low-quality goods. Recently, oil marketers stated that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, often known as petrol, manufactured by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery ranged between N1,015 and N1,028 per liter depending on the amount purchased. Based on this, the dealers promised to import the item and sell it at a lower price than the Dangote refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited were charging.

Although the refinery had previously refuted the marketers' assertions, it said on Sunday that there was collusion with an overseas corporation to blend and dump products into the market to compete with Dangote's high grade. The statement stated, "We had recently refrained from engaging in media fights, but we are compelled to respond to the recent misinformation circulated by IPMAN, PETROAN, and other associations." "Both organizations say that they can import PMS at a lesser price than the Dangote refinery. We measure our pricing against worldwide prices and feel they are competitive in comparison to the cost of imports.

“If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low-quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.

"At the same time, a foreign trading corporation recently rented a depot facility close to the Dangote Refinery with the intention of utilizing it to blend inferior goods that would be thrown into the market to compete with the Dangote Refinery's higher quality output. "This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria." It also criticized its regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, for failing to discover inferior products owing to a lack of a working laboratory.

"Unfortunately, the regulator, NMDPRA does not even have laboratory facilities that can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country," Dangote reported. Following the sector's recent liberalization, the $20 billion Lekki-based facility said that it will sell petrol at a reduced cost of N960 per litre for ships and N990 per litre for trucks. It was noticed that, while NNPC had fixed its rates at N971 for ship-based sales and N990 for truck-based sales, the refinery chose to set its price at N960 for ship sales while maintaining the truck rate at N990.

"After deregulation, the NNPC led the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers for N971 per litre for sale into ships and N990 for sale into trucks. This established the baseline for our price, and we have even gone lower, selling at N960 per litre for ships while keeping N990 per litre for trucks. "In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased," he said. Furthermore, the spokesman stated that there is nothing wrong with the federal government defending its local businesses, as is the case in other nations. "We should note that it is not uncommon for governments to safeguard indigenous sectors in order to create jobs and build the economy. To defend their indigenous sectors, the United States and Europe have had to levy hefty tariffs on EVs and microchips. "While we continue with our determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum products in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty," Chiejina told reporters.