A fleet of trucks belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) have commenced loading of petrol from Dangote Refinery.
Earlier, the NNPCL had assured that hundreds of trucks would be deployed to the refinery on Sunday for the loading of PMS loading.
“In preparation for the Dangote Refinery’s scheduled petrol loading on Sunday, 15th September 2024, NNPC Ltd has been mobilising trucks to the refinery’s fuel loading gantry in Ibeju-Lekki. As of Saturday afternoon, NNPC Ltd had deployed over 100 trucks, with hundreds more en route,” the NNPCL had said.
The trucks which were brought to the Refinery in their hundreds were seen in videos posted on the X handle of the Dangote Group.
The trucks started loading the product at the refinery located in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State on Sunday.
“First set of trucks set for loading of PMS at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery,” the tweet said.
The $20bn Lekki-based facility is equipped with 86 gantries. This makes it possible to load 86 trucks simultaneously.
Initially, 10 trucks drove into gantries while their compartments were filled with petrol from a computerised gadget, the Nigerian Television Authority reports.
Credit: X | Dangote Group
The loading of the petrol marks an end to the month-long debate over the quality and sale of the product.
However, the price at which the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery would sell the product to oil marketers and subsequently, the public remains unknown.
Recall that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, had announced on Friday in Abuja that the NNPCL would be the sole buyer of petrol from the refinery.
He added that the refinery would commence distribution of petrol to marketers on Sunday with an initial 25 million litres per day.
Recall also that the NNPCL had, in a statement that it was not the exclusive off-taker of products from the Dangote refinery and that the refinery was free to sell its petrol to any marketer.
“I am glad to announce that all agreements have been put in place and the loading of the first batch of PMS, as already announced by NNPC, will commence on Sunday, September 15, 2024 and from October 1, NNPC will commence the supply of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid in naira.
“In return, Dangote refinery will supply PMS and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market to be paid in naira. But for now, PMS will only be sold to NNPC. NNPC will then sell to various marketers.”
