President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, has provided clarification on the reason it does not support a continuous reduction in prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, by the Dangote Refinery.

The clarification comes after the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, slashed petrol gantry price from N828 to N699 per litre on Friday, vowing to enforce a new pump price regime of N739 per litre.

Dangote said on Sunday that he was aware that, despite lower gantry prices, some filling stations often chose to retain high pump prices, thereby undermining his efforts.

According to him, MRS would commence the sale of petrol at N739 per litre from Tuesday, while other partners would follow.

“I was told that the marketers have met with (some officials) and were told to make sure that the price is maintained high. But this price we are going to introduce, we are going to start with MRS stations, most likely on Tuesday in Lagos; that N970 per litre, you won’t see it again. We have also asked members of IPMAN to come now. We have asked anybody who can buy 10 trucks to come and buy 10 trucks at N699.

“We are going to use whatever resources we have to make sure that we crash the price down. For this December and January, we don’t want people to sell petrol for more than N740 nationwide. Those who want to keep the price high to sabotage the government, we will fight as much as we can to make sure that these prices are down. If you have money to come and buy, you can pick up petrol at N699,” he said.

Reports of PETROAN kicking against Dangote’s price cuts surfaced afterwards, sparking reactions among Nigerians.

Reacting to the backlashes, Gilly-Harris, while appearing on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Wednesday, explained that although the Association does not frown at price reduction, its members have incurred debts running into billions as a result of the development.

“It is wrong to say we are not happy with the drop in prices of petrol.

“We are happy if prices come down, we will be able to get lower capital for business. But what we are addressing there is that only a few days ago, our members bought products in bulk, and they just arrived, and before they can even sell one litre, in the same market, the price has been reduced by N129 per litre.

“Some of these products are about 120 metric tons, now, multiply the size by N129 per litre. We are talking about billions of naira that is going to be lost. Who is going to pay for that money?

“So, we are not against Dangote at all. What we just want is that in a matter like this, when some of our members have bought some products, we should have been informed of the price reduction.

“That we are in a deregulated market should not mean you should be selling products that are not driven by market indices. Otherwise, we support Dangote, we buy products from him, and we will continue to buy products from him”, he said.

Monopoly

The PETROAN President said Nigeria needs multiple petrol supply sources to fight monopoly in the downstream sector.

“If there are no imported products, I can tell you that the last six to nine months, Nigerians would have been looking for alternative sources of products, which may cost us more.

“There is no litre of petrol that leaves the depot, including Dangote’s refinery, that is not recorded by the NMDPRA.

“If he claimed to have such a quantity in his facility, then he should get a government agency to confirm the quantity because we cannot be bigger than our country.

“Yes, we know that we are in this situation because the NNPC has not been able to get the refineries to work.

“But I believe that with the current energy being put in by the current administration, something good will come out of that.

“If the refineries were working, we wouldn’t be in the situation where we are always getting in touch with the media to argue all the time. This is our business, and we shouldn’t be discussing it in public.”

No substandard petrol in Nigeria currently

Although he agreed that there was a time the Nigerian market was flooded with substandard products, he, however, clarified that the menace had fizzled out.

“As far as I know, we have had petroleum products that came into the country that were substandard.

"But that was many years back. But that is being addressed daily by the authority. But we can’t use what happened in the past to judge the current reality. To my knowledge, NMDPRA has a robust laboratory department.

"So, I keep wondering why he was so frontal that there is no lab. So what are those labs doing? There are staff working in their laboratories.

“For instance, before the Port Harcourt refinery started loading out refined PMS, it took so long because NMDPRA needed to certify the quality of the product. And we know how long it took us.

“So, how does it get so easy to just accuse an organisation of such mammoth misdeed?”

He, however, noted that the claims and counterclaims were unnecessary, as the downstream operators needed to focus on adequate product supply to Nigerians.

“We need to serve Nigerians. Some of my people are complaining that they had to cut prices by N10-N15 per litre.

“How do we continue to work like that and you keep accusing someone of arbitrarily issuing import licenses, while you keep changing prices, not minding the financial difficulties it will bring to the industry”, he said. (Channels TV)

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