Dangote, PH refineries, others won't reduce fuel price locally – NNPP's Mele Kyari

NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari has warned that the Dangote Refinery, Port Harcourt Refining Company and others in Nigeria are not going to change the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.

Kyari made this known in an interview on Arise TV on Thursday in Abuja as he noted that the notion that prices at the pump would reduce once the country starts domestic production was false.

He confirmed that the Dangote Refinery, which was inaugurated on May 22, 2023, by former President Muhammadu Buhari, would start pushing out products by the end of July and early August.

He also stated that the Port Harcourt Refinery would be delivered by the end of the year, adding that the facility was expected to further boost local production of petrol.

But Kyari declared that despite the volume of petrol being expected from these facilities, the cost of the commodity would not reduce, regardless of the fact that the product was produced locally.

“There is a notion that if the product is processed locally, prices will reduce. Let me make it clear that it is not going to change anything. If you produce locally, the refineries will also input the cost of production and other things and it will be sold at the current price.

“There will also be no subsidy when local production starts because there is no cash-to-back subsidy, this country no longer has the resources to continue with subsidy,” Kyari stated.

Speaking on when the fuel queues being witnessed across the country would clear, during another interview on Channels TV, the NNPCL boss said the queues would not exceed Saturday.

“I don’t see it staying beyond another day or two, maximum. It can actually be on Saturday. We have supplies. The key trouble with the PMS system is supply, but I have supplies.

“There are over 810 million litres of PMS in depots, tanks and fuel stations across the country, so you don’t have the problem of transferring those from marine to land, you already have them on the ground,” he stated.

He validated the PMS pricing document for various states that trended on Wednesday on the internet, stating that the document was from the NNPCL.

“You have seen a document in the space out there. Every company does this. It is a marketing document. It was not a price announcing document, every company keeps this record and adjusts it appropriately on the basis of changing conditions in the market.

“So what you saw was just an internal company document that found its way into the internet. It is an NNPC document but it was not intended to be an announcement and is not an announcement, because it can change the next day,” Kyari stated.

On whether there was enough product in-country, he said, “Today I have 1.8 billion litres of PMS and that means that if we don’t do anything, I’ll have sufficient fuel for the next 30 days in my hands.

Kyari explained that the company had over 800 million litres of petrol on land, stored in filling stations, tank farms and depots, while its total stock for both marine and land stood at about 1.8 billion litres.

“But, of course, the way we supply is not this way, so we maintain this level of supply consistently. That means you will see the arrival of products every day so that you continue to maintain that level of safety.”