Osas Imadiyi
Businessman, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that petrol produced from his 650,000 barrels per day facility will reach the filling stations in the next 48 hours as modalities are formalized with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Dangote disclosed this during a press briefing announcing the formal production of petrol at the refinery. “Our Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) can be in filling stations within the next 48 hours depending on NNPCL,” he said.
On the pricing of petrol from his refinery, Dangote said that an arrangement has been designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“As soon as it is finalised, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market,” he also added.
Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20bn facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially troubled by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Dangote also added that the introduction of naira for crude will reduce the demand for foreign exchange by 40 per cent. He also said that it would become possible to track loaded trucks, thereby making it a lot easier to compute national consumption.