Mr Soneye emphasised that market forces determine domestic pump prices.
Dangote Refinery has challenged the claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) that it bought petrol from its refinery at N898 per litre.
However, the Dangote Refinery in a statement by its Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, on Sunday, also failed to disclose the price at which it sold the product to NNPC Ltd.
On Sunday, Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of the NNPC Ltd, told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview that the company bought petrol from Dangote refinery at N898 per litre.
Mr Soney said market forces now determine domestic pump prices.
"What you need to understand is that it's market forces that determine the price. For instance, now Brent is $70. Let's say tomorrow now, Brent goes to $80, you should note that the price will also increase because those are the market forces.
"But today, for this initial 16.8 million litre that was given to us, it was at the rate of N898," Mr Soneye told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday evening.
Dangote Refinery reacts
However, in its reaction on Sunday, the Dangote Refinery described the claim as "misleading and mischievous", aimed at undermining the refinery's achievement in addressing Nigeria's energy insufficiency.
The refinery urged Nigerians to disregard the "malicious statement" and await a formal announcement on the pricing by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which will commence on 1 October 2024.
It noted that its current stock of crude was procured in dollars and sold to NNPC in dollars, resulting in significant savings compared to current imports.
"Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898 per litre to the NNPCL. This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedeviled the economy in the past 50 years.
"We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.
"It should also be noted that we sold the products to NNPCL in dollars with a lot of savings against what they are currently importing. With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature. We assure Nigerians of availability of quality petroleum products and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country," the statement said.
The statement by Mr Chiejina however failed to tell Nigerians the price at which the refinery sold its petrol to NNPC Ltd.
It urged Nigerians to disregard NNPC's claim and await a formal announcement on the pricing by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which will commence on 1 October.
The company did not say if the petrol currently being lifted from its facility would not be sold until 1st October.
When PREMIUM TIMES reached out to Mr Chiejina for comment Sunday night, he promised to get back. He has yet to do so as of press time Sunday night.
Background
In July, the Federal Executive Council directed NNPC Ltd to engage the Dangote refinery and other local refineries to resolve the dispute over the sale of crude oil to them.
The FEC, presided over by President Bola Tinubu, also directed that such crude oil sales to the refineries be made in naira and that the refineries located in Nigeria should also sell their refined products to the Nigerian market in naira.
Earlier in September, Devakumar Edwin, vice president at Dangote Industries Limited, said the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery has begun the processing of petrol.
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Mr Edwin explained that the NNPC Limited would buy its product exclusively.
On Friday, the Nigerian government announced that loading of petrol from Dangote Refinery will begin on Sunday.
The government said petrol from the Dangote refinery would only be sold to NNPC Ltd which would then sell to various marketers in the short term.
On Saturday the state-owned oil company said it deployed over 100 trucks as of Saturday afternoon. Confirming the development, Mr Soneye said by the end of Saturday, at least 300 trucks would be stationed at the refinery's fuel loading gantry.
On Sunday, the NNPC released videos showing its trucks loading petrol from the refinery.
The refinery is expected to significantly boost Nigeria's fuel supply stability.
