Barring all unforeseen circumstances, Dangote imported fuel will soon enter Nigerian market as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL ) has granted the Chairman of Dangote Group and President, Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, licence to begin the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol into the country pending the completion of the 650,000 barrels per day plant at Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
ENERGY TIMES reliably gathered from top Presidency sources that the imported fuel would be discharged at Dangote barge and pumped into tanks and would sell at market dictated price to marketers while work progresses at the refinery.
The choice of Dangote to bring in the product was informed by NNPC’s 20% minority stake in the refinery.
NNPC is investing $2.76 billion deal in the plant which is paid in cash.
The second payment would be through crude sales, and the last payment would be through profits made by the company.
Another one third of the money, it was learnt, will be paid through supply of crude, with the deduction of a maximum of about $2 and some cents. And then the one third of it, which is another $850 to $900 million, will be paid from the profit they are going to make from the business.
“So it’s not a cash transaction where they are paying all cash. You can see that if we don’t have confidence in what we are doing, we will have asked them to pay all cash.”
The refinery was commissioned by the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, on May 22, 2023 with pomp and ceremonies. He was accompanied on the occasion by other West African countries’ presidents.
At the commissioning, Dangote said that the first refined petroleum products from the refinery would hit the market before the end of July or August 2023.
