Oil Marketers Counter Dangote Refinery, Dispute Claim of Importing Counterfeit Product, Non-availability of Testing Lab in Nigeria

Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) an umbrella body of depot owners and major fuel marketers, has disputed the claim by the Dangote Refinery Management that any oil importer that lands Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at a price lower than the price the Refinery is offering must be importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country.

Recall that Dangote Refinery had, amongst other accusations, on Sunday said an international trading company hired a depot facility next to it to blend substandard petroleum products in deliberate attempts for rivalry.

The statement, signed by Group Chief Branding and Communications of Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, reads in part: “If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.

“Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.”

However, in a news release countering the claims, Olufemi Adewole, the Executive Secretary of DAPPMAN, said none of its members was engaging in activities that could shortchange Nigerian fuel users by conniving with anyone to bring in low quality product into the country.

“We have said this for the umpteenth time, and it bears repeating, those in the downstream sector business of petroleum products trade are patriotic Nigerians who will not shortchange Nigerian citizens for filthy lucre. Our members are in this business to add value to the businesses of their fellow Nigerians and not to defraud them.

“Prices of products in the international market are dynamic as they are dictated by prevailing circumstances at every given situation. We calculate our landing costs based on the dynamics of market forces, and the templates are always in the public domain. To claim that if the landing cost of imported product happens to be lower than that of the refinery indicates importation of low quality product is not only preposterous, but also fallacious. In any case, the management of the refinery has, until now, kept its cost and prices close to its chest and put it away from public scrutiny. “

“This type of submission, targeted at projecting our members negatively before the public, can not help the management’s desire to have oil marketers patronise its products. What will ensure such patronage is transparency, fairplay, and readiness to compete with others, including foreign refineries, on an even keel and on a level playing field”

Reacting further to the Refinery’s further onslaught against fuel marketers and the regulator, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), NMDPRA, Executive Secretary said that the claim that the regulator did not have a modern laboratory to test imported fuel was not presenting the true situation in the industry before the public.

“A regulator must have access to modern, state of the art laboratory at every point in time, whether owned by it or others. Such laboratories must be of world standard. The regulator, and indeed, the marketers, have access to such world-class laboratories, which include: SGS, Inspectorate, and Interterk, among others.”

“If fuel marketers were bringing in off spec fuel, this wouldn’t have been difficult to be detected. How many vehicles in the last one year have reported engine problems resulting from bad fuel? Where are the reports about environmental pollution occasioned by the usage of low quality fuel? It is a false statement to claim that any product brought in with a landing price lower than the price offered by the Dangote Refinery is a substandard product. It is the management of the refinery that will need to tweak its template to reflect the crude for naira sales and other incentives which the federal government has graciously extended to the refinery,” the Executive Secretary noted.

Adewole also disclosed that the revelation by the Refinery management that it has a huge stock of 500 million litres fuel reserve came to its members as news.

“We were surprised because we believe that if the Refinery has such huge stock, it is the marketers that should be put in the know first.

‘Secondly, it was even more surprising given that the news came about the time the refinery was working on rationing what each marketer could pick from the refinery. If they had such huge stock, how is it then that they are rationing what marketers could buy. “

“On all these developments in the industry, the position of our members is very clear: we have always played by the rules, and we will continue to play by the rules. We will not be tired of advocating for a level playing field and a highly competitive and transparent sector that is devoid of arm twisting and devoid of any form of dominant tendencies, ” the Executive Secretary concluded.

Since commencing petrol production and lifting in September, Nigerians have had to listen almost on weekly basis to different tales from top management team of Dangote Refinery pointing accusing fingers either at the regulator, marketers or NNPCL and yet the pump prices of petrol have instead of going down continued to climb the rooftops.

A journalist and public intellectual, Emeka Madunagu, in his submission, said Dangote Refinery enjoyed enormous preferential treatments from the federal government to be selling at higher prices than imported products. He said the Refinery may by itself push Nigerians to boycott its products if it continues to do business painting others bad and itself good.

“Nigerians may have to boycott all Dangote products to drive home the message to him. This desperation to paint others ugly and make yourself look good is insulting to Nigerians. We had so much expectation that with the sale of crude to Dangote in Naira, that petrol would come down to N400. Yes, it’s locally produced. No import duties. There are a lot of waived fees. So, how can his petrol be more expensive than imported variants? Labelling the ones imported by his competitors as substandard is very wrong,” Madunagu said.