?angote Refinery, one of Africas largest oil refineries, has expressed concern over the lack of patronage from petroleum marketers due to low pricing strategies on its product sales.
Vice-president of ?angote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, disclosed this on a Twitter Spaces session organised yesterday.
He said, Over 95 percent of petroleum product importers in Nigeria are not buying from the ?angote Refinery. The ?angote Refinery struggles to sell about 29 tankers of diesel per day due to low patronage from local petroleum products importers. As a result of this poor local patronage, ?angote Refinery exports most of its diesel and aviation fuel.
“Petroleum product marketers in Nigeria have written to President Bola Tinubu to complain that the refinery local prices which have dropped from N1,200 to N1,000 and now N900 per litre are impacting their businesses negatively, he revealed.
Edwin highlighted some of the challenges facing the ?angote Refinery and its impact on Nigerias fuel supply and prices.
According to him, the refinery, located in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, struggles to sell about 29 tankers of diesel per day due to low patronage from local petroleum product importers.
Edwin had earlier said ?angote Refinery products would be exported if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other petroleum dealers in the country refused to patronise it.
Edwin expressed surprise that the company started facing different challenges it never expected when the refinery was set to commence operations.
He recalled that the philosophy initially was to add value to the raw materials available in the country, regretting that Nigeria is still exporting crude and importing refined petroleum products after over three decades.
