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Aliko Dangote's oil refinery has cut the number of companies cleared to buy and distribute its petrol to 25 from 37, dropping 12 firms from the group and changing the way it prices the fuel.
The refinery also scrapped its fixed gantry price for petrol and returned to a formula tied to the European Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending, or EBOB, a gasoline benchmark, using a five-day average of that price. Industry sources said the new system took effect on Saturday, Nov. 7. Under it, petrol prices in Nigeria will rise and fall with global gasoline prices. Diesel stays on a fixed gantry price.
The loading price for petrol under the new arrangement was reported at about ₦1,250 ($0.92) a litre. That does not mean filling stations will sell at that level, since pump prices include transport and retail margins.
Who stays in
The 25 companies are Techno Oil, Pivot, Soroman, NIPCO, MRS, Ardova, Fagbem, Masters, Bovas, Optima, Nepal Energies, Mainland, NNPC, Sobaz, Northwest, Danmarna, A.A. Rano, Rainoil, Pinnacle, AYM Shafa, Salbas, Heyden, Eterna, TotalEnergies and Bongas.
The refinery has not named the 12 companies it dropped or explained why. An industry source linked the change to concerns about the pricing of some members of the old group.
Conoil Plc, the fuel retailer controlled by billionaire Mike Adenuga, and Integrated were among 20 companies the refinery named in a communication to marketers on Oct. 8. Neither appears on the new list.
That October list followed the refinery's decision on Oct. 6 to stop selling to marketers it identified as importers, which it said had blended its petrol with imported fuel. The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria accused the refinery at the time of being selective about whom it supplies. The group of approved buyers later grew to 37 before this week's cut.
Regulator sets Dec. 9 deadline
The change comes as Nigeria's downstream regulator moves to set rules for fuel pricing. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority published a proposed Petroleum Products Pricing Framework and gave refiners, importers, marketers, depot owners and transporters until Dec. 9 to submit comments. The 21-day consultation is required under the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021.
The regulator said the framework is meant to "promote transparency, competition and efficiency in petroleum product pricing." It plans a stakeholder forum in Abuja on Jan. 5, 2027. The proposal does not fix pump prices.
Nigeria's competition regulator warned refiners and marketers on Nov. 10 against holding prices high while their costs fall, and said it would act on any anti-competitive conduct. It did not accuse any company of wrongdoing.
The 650,000-barrel-a-day Dangote refinery in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos has become Nigeria's main source of petrol, and its prices now set the pace for marketers across the country. Dangote, Africa's richest person, spent about $20 billion building the plant and is selling shares in it to the public.
Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.
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