95% Of Local Marketers Don’t Buy Our Diesel They Say The Prices Are Cheap – Dangote

One of Africa’s largest oil refineries, Dangote Refinery, as expressed concern over the lack of patronage from petroleum marketers due to low pricing strategies on its product sales.

Devakumar V.G. Edwin, vice president of Dangote Industries Limited, disclosed this on a Twitter Spaces session organised by Nairametrics. He revealed that despite the refinery’s efforts to supply affordable petroleum products, many traders in Nigeria have refused to purchase from the refinery, preferring to continue importing refined products from abroad.

Speaking during the session, Edwin highlighted the initial vision behind the establishment of the Dangote Refinery, which was aimed at reducing Nigeria’s reliance on imported petroleum products.

“The whole purpose of doing this refinery in Nigeria was to utilize our local crude instead of exporting raw materials and importing finished products,” he explained. “We should be able to refine and use the finished products within Nigeria and produce more to export the surplus.” Despite the refinery’s large production capacity, local marketers are only purchasing about 3% of the output.

He noted that the remaining 97% of the refinery’s production, including diesel and jet fuel, is being exported due to a boycott by local traders who refuse to buy at the refinery’s lower prices. This has forced the refinery to explore international markets, exporting the majority of its refined products, even though it was originally intended to supply the Nigerian market.

Edwin said: “I’m selling 2 to 3% to small traders who are willing to buy, while the rest 95 to 97% I’m forced to export,” while speaking about the quantity of the refinery’s Products sold locally. He suggested that there is a deliberate attempt by some marketers to block the refinery’s operations, as they prefer to import products rather than support local refining.