Dangote Group’s Vice-President, Devakumar Edwin, has disclosed why the price of petrol has failed to decrease despite free petrol distribution by Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Edwin explained that the delay in the arrival of the 4,000 CNG trucks ordered from China has slowed down its free nationwide delivery of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.
He stated this on Friday during a tour of the Dangote refinery by Reno Omokri, a former adviser to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.
Edwin said, “What happened is we ordered the 4,000 trucks but the ships from China coming, they could not get adequate ships to bring all the 4,000 here. That had a major impact.
“By the grace of God, before the end of this year, we will have all the trucks here. Once we have all the trucks here, we start rolling out, every demand locally, we will be able to meet through our own trucks.
“Then, we will be able to see the impact, whether you are in Taraba, whether you are in Maiduguri, whether you are in Sokoto, we will be able to see that the prices remain uniform and the prices are much lower.”
Edwin also explained that Dangote refinery is facing crude oil supply challenges, which are affecting its plan to transition to 100 percent local crude
In July, he announced that the refinery expects to transition 100 percent to local crude supply before the end of 2025.
Highlighting the constraints in achieving the goal, Edwin mentioned the recent suspension of the naira-for-crude initiative, which was due to a lack of supply of crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Edwin said that since President Bola Tinubu intervened, directing that crude be supplied in naira, the company believes its challenges in securing 100 per cent local crude supply will be resolved going forward.
