Pricing of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) has been a key agenda in the marathon meetings between the managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and Dangote Petroleum Limited in the last few weeks, The Nation learnt.

A source of the National Oil Company, who was privy to the meetings, which have been holding in the NNPCL Tower, Abuja, said they also tabled other matters relating to pricing.

The source, who only spoke with The Nation in confidence said: “We have been holding meetings for over three weeks now, discussing various issues, with pricing being one of the key topics, along with other related matters.”

READ ALSO: NNPCL Announces Date Dangote’s Petrol Will Flood Market, Prices To Be determined by Market Forces
The meetings are certainly the roundtable negotiations following their previous disagreements over pricing.

Dangote Group President Aliko Dangote had said the product was regulated by NNPCL.

Amazing Cool GadgetsAmazing Cool Gadgets

It also added that the state-owned oil firm was yet to fix the pump for the PMS.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Groan As NNPCL Increases Fuel Pump Price

After days of conjecture about the pricing and sale of the product, NNPCL insisted it will certainly procure the product offshore if it is not cheaper in the Nigeria’s domestic refineries.

The NNPCL’s current petrol pump price is N897 per litre with independent marketers vending the product for as much as N1,200 per litre and black marketers selling in plastic Jerry cans uncontrollably for as much as N13,000 per 10 litre.

This has resulted in endless queues around the NNPCL retail outlets and the independent stations.
NATION

The Naira continued its downward trend on Friday, depreciating to N1,660 per dollar in the parallel market.

This represents a slight decline from the N1,655 per dollar traded on Thursday.

In a similar vein, the Naira depreciated to N1,546.41 per dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday. According to data from FMDQ, the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell from N1,649.76 per dollar on Thursday, indicating a marginal appreciation of N103.35 for the Naira.

READ ALSO: Naira Slumps Massively Against Dollar On Tuesday

However, the gap between the parallel market and NAFEM rates widened significantly, increasing to N113.59 per dollar from N5.24 per dollar the previous day. This growing disparity highlights the ongoing instability in the foreign exchange market.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has said that it is forced to export 97 percent of its refined products due to low patronage by local oil marketers.

Speaking during an an X space organised by Nairametrics, Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), said only 3 percent of local oil marketers are purchasing refined petroleum products.

His words: “The conglomerate of all the importers is refusing to buy from us. It is very strange that after putting up the refinery to supply the products locally, I have to export every diesel and jet fuel because they do not want to buy from us,” Edwin said.

“We started selling the diesel, we fixed the price, and it was lower than the prevailing market price. Then, we brought the price further down and they (marketers) wrote to the president complaining.”

READ ALSO: NNPCL Announces Date Dangote’s Petrol Will Flood Market, Prices To Be determined by Market Forces

Specifically, Edwin said the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) wrote to President Bola Tinubu that the price cut affected their business “due to the large inventory of imported AGO”.

“I’m selling 2 percent to 3 percent to small traders who are willing to buy, while the rest 95 to 97% I’m forced to export,” he said.

The vice-president said the refinery may also be forced to export its petrol “if they are not willing to buy”.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: NNPCL Reaches Agreement To Sell Crude Oil To Dangote Refinery In Naira

“But to be very frank and straightforward, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has come forward.

“They have been discussing. Although the discussion has been going on for almost three weeks and it is not yet concluded, they are working to agree with us on the quantity of crude they can sell and they said they will monitor the products.

“They are going to have a team of 10 people sitting in the refinery. They will see the crude which we are going to receive, ensuring that everything is coming into the refinery, and they would watch whether we are producing and processing everything and then, they would watch whether we are giving back all the products,” Edwin said.