Petrol nears ₦1,000 as depot owners exploit Dangote refinery supply glitch

Nigeria’s long-running battle with fuel scarcity has entered another round, this time, driven not by government policy but by entrenched oil interests seeking to maintain control over the downstream market.

Barely two weeks after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) launched a strike targeting the Dangote Refinery, petrol prices have surged again, nearing ₦1,000 per litre across several states.

According to The Punch, depot owners under the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) hiked ex-depot prices from about ₦830 to ₦890 per litre after the Dangote Refinery temporarily paused loading operations last week. At filling stations, pump prices rose to between ₦920 and ₦955, and as high as ₦1,000 in parts of Abuja, Lagos, and Sokoto.

Industry officials blamed the surge on supply constraints from Dangote’s 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery, a locally based producer in a sector long dominated by import cartels.

“These DAPPMAN people are the only ones selling the product now. But probably Dangote will start tomorrow. Once that happens, prices will drop,” said IPMAN President, Abubakar Shettima, in an interview with The Punch.

“Immediately they saw Dangote was not loading, they increased their ex-depot prices.”

The refinery, which had helped moderate prices since its recent start-up, reportedly slowed output after recent labour disruptions triggered by the PENGASSAN dispute. Around 800 workers were recently laid off.

But the temporary pause opened a door for old players — major depot owners and their allied unions – to reassert control and inflate prices, analysts say.

IPMAN said Dangote Refinery has also raised its prices.

“There is a reorganisation going on, and the issue of the NUPENG strike caused a little glitch in terms of supply and refining of petroleum products, because of the workers’ strike,” explained IPMAN spokesman, Chinedu Ukadike.

“And what we are trying to do now is to manage the situation. Now Dangote has also increased its pump price, while NNPCL has increased its price. This just shows that it is a reflective market whereby when the suppliers increase prices, the retailers have no choice but to increase them, just to make a little profit.”

Logistics-free

Before the disruptions, Dangote’s new “logistics-free” fuel distribution had promised to reduce pump prices to ₦841 in the South West and ₦851 in Abuja, Edo, and Rivers — far below current rates.

But while production slowed, Nigerians again found themselves paying more for less. NNPC filling stations in Lagos and Ogun sold petrol at ₦928 per litre, up from ₦870 a few weeks ago, while private depots such as Matrix, Pinnacle, and RainOil raised rates to between ₦885 and ₦900. NNPC in Abuja sold fuel at N955 per litre on Tuesday.

As one industry observer told Pluboard, “What’s unfolding isn’t a supply problem. It’s a turf war — a fight to keep Nigeria hooked on a broken system where a few decide how much 200 million people must pay for fuel.”