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Aliko Dangote's oil refinery cut the price of diesel at its gantry by ₦120 a litre, or 6.5%, to ₦1,720 ($1.26), as falling crude prices drove down the cost of importing fuel into Nigeria.
The cut, from ₦1,840 a litre, reverses an earlier increase from ₦1,800. During that rise, diesel at depots in Lagos and Warri reached as much as ₦1,900 a litre.
The refinery did not announce a matching cut to petrol. It earlier lowered its petrol gantry price to ₦1,215 a litre.
The landing cost of imported petrol has fallen to about ₦1,072 a litre, well below Dangote's price. The Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria put import parity on Nov. 5 at ₦1,072.72 a litre at the ASPM jetty and ₦1,071.72 at the NPSC-NOJ jetty, both in Apapa, Lagos. The 30-day average was ₦1,252.02.
Regulator warns sellers
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission warned refiners and marketers on Nov. 10 against keeping prices high while their costs fall.
Tunji Bello, the commission's executive vice chairman, said that if the decline in crude prices holds, refiners and marketers have no reason to hold back the savings, which should reach consumers without unnecessary delay. The commission will monitor pricing with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and other agencies, and will act if it finds anti-competitive conduct or unfair practices that keep consumers from benefiting from lower costs.
The commission did not accuse the Dangote refinery or any marketer of wrongdoing.
Petrol sold for ₦1,325 to ₦1,370 a litre at filling stations in Lagos this month and for ₦1,405 to ₦1,420 in Abuja.
Crude slides
Brent crude traded near $115 a barrel in September and fell below $90 this week. It had closed at $72.48 on Feb. 27, before the conflict involving the U.S., Israel and Iran pushed oil prices higher. Petrol then sold for ₦839 to ₦925 a litre in Lagos and Abuja.
Between Oct. 19 and Oct. 23, with Brent above $116, marketers cut petrol prices at major depots while diesel rose by as much as ₦110 a litre.
The 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos has become Nigeria's main source of petrol and diesel since it started producing fuel, and its gantry prices now set the pace for marketers across the country. Dangote spent about $20 billion building the plant.
Dangote, Africa's richest person, is selling shares in the refinery to the public in the largest initial public offering in Africa's history. The offer drew about ₦5.85 trillion ($4.3 billion) in applications from nearly 3.8 million investors, close to three times the amount sought.
Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.
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