Devakumar Edwin, the vice president of the Dangote Group, made the announcement on Friday while giving a tour of the refinery.
Marketers are free to bring any trucks to the gantry for loading, he said, because the refinery has enough gasoline for both the local and export markets.
He noted that fuel prices in filling stations may have gone up due to the misinformation that the Dangote Refinery had halted the sale of petrol.
“So, this one is again a campaign to try to say the prices will go up. I can go and try to increase my filling station price; maybe Dangote is not supplying.
Bring your tankers. We will load. Any number of tankers you bring, we’ll load. It’s a challenge I’m throwing today. No one can come and tell me I’m not loading.
We can load any number of tankers you bring. So, you can see whether I have the capacity to produce or not. We have more than 310 million litres as of now,” he stated.
“When the prices are a bit low, we buy a lot. When our stocks are going down, we buy a lot.
But at the same time, if your inventory of crude is very high, nobody would like to lock so much money into their tanks, because it’s money locked in the form of crude oil. So, we reduce our inflow, which is what happened,” he added, explaining why the refinery reduced its fuel intake.
In a confusing market shift, fuel prices in Nigeria had gone from around N865 per litre to almost N1,000, especially considering that crude prices and the country’s currency have been stable.
“But here, as I was explaining, I have more than 310 million litres of PMS as of today inside my tanks, apart from the production which is coming out every day,” he emphasised.
Filling stations in states such as Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja increased their pump prices as reported by the Punch.
Dangote’s slow crude purchase
On Thursday, it was reported that the Dangote oil refinery was reducing crude purchases, signaling ongoing operational issues that could keep global gasoline prices high until 2026.
This was addressed by the group’s vice president during the tour as he stated, “They said we have problems. No factory works 100 per cent every day without a problem. But if there is a problem, whether it is going to affect your final production or not is a key issue. So, normally, all these major businesses have what we call turnaround maintenance.”
However, analysts and tanker-tracking data revealed that the Lagos-based facility is purchasing fewer than 300,000 barrels of oil per day this month, a more than 50% decrease from its July peak and less than half of its projected capacity.
Bloomberg’s figures show that both domestic and imported barrels are declining.
Since operations began, the refinery has been plagued by unanticipated outages, workforce interruptions, and equipment maintenance, resulting in frequent output slowdowns.
According to intelligence firm IIR Energy, the refinery’s gasoline-making facility, Africa’s largest of its kind, has been shut down numerous times this year and may shut down again early next year for extensive repairs.
This month, Dangote will get around 150,000 barrels per day of crude feedstock from a new supply agreement with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
The balance is normally derived from the United States, although statistics reveal that no West Texas Intermediate cargoes were acquired in November.
