The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, says the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and oil marketers have not been buying petrol from the Dangote refinery in Lagos State.

Dangote said NNPCL and retailers are not collecting the available products to ease petrol queues in the country, adding that this also results in financial losses for the refinery.

The billionaire businessman disclosed this while addressing State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu to review the sale of crude in naira to local refiners at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, October 29, 2024.

On the scarcity of petrol, Dangote said his refinery was not responsible for making the product available at petrol stations.

He said: “One thing you have to understand is that we are producers. I have a refinery. I’m not in the business of retail.

“If I’m in the business of retail then you hold me responsible. But what I’m saying is that the retailers should please come forward and pick, if they don’t come forward and pick, what do you want me to do?

“So, I expect NNPC and the marketers to stop importing, they should come and pick because we have what they need. And you know, as they remove, I will be pumping.

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“It’s costing me money every day. If I will be able to collect the naira, I can actually charge somebody 32 per cent in interest.

“So right now, that’s what I’m losing. And we are talking about 500 million, and we don’t print money.”

Dangote added that his refinery has the capacity to meet the country’s local demand, saying: “With enough supply of crude, we can actually produce much more than 30 million litres every day.

“At full capacity, we can even supply whatever is being consumed, which I believe may be about 30.32 million litres per day.

“So, it is not really an issue, because, as we speak today, we have 500 million litres in our tanks. Even if there’s no production from any refinery or imports. This will take the country more than 12 days.

“I assured Mr President we will be able to supply the market minimum of 30 million litres per day, and we’ll be ramping up as we go on. So, we’re ready. We’re more than ready.”

The Star