The price of petroleum products from the Dangote Refinery has been seen as one of the reasons petroleum product imports persist in Nigeria.
S&P Global, an American financial analytics company, disclosed in its recent report that Dangote’s price reduction was not significant enough relative to the global crash in crude prices.
The mega refinery has reduced petrol and other petroleum product prices several times, creating a price war with industry leaders.
The refinery crashed its PMS price from N1,100 per litre in September last year, when it began petrol production, to N860 per litre in March 2025, before increasing its prices again due to the collapse of the naira-for-crude deal.
However, the American investment firm said the refinery did not lower its loading prices significantly enough, leading to massive PMS imports by marketers.
According to S&P Global, the incentives to ship products to West Africa were due to Dangote Refinery, stating that while flat prices crashed massively due to crude oil prices, Dangote has not lowered its loading prices.
The report said that between April 1 and 9, the Eurobob M1 swap dropped from $734.25/MT to $603/MT, representing a 17.9% drop, before recovering.
However, it said that over the period, Dangote’s truck prices at its loading gantry dropped only 1.7% from N880 per litre to N865.
The report disclosed that the development had encouraged product imports in West Africa, where high local prices have led marketers to import from international traders in larger volumes.
TimesNow.com.ng reported that the 650,000 bpd-capacity refinery reduced its gantry petrol prices on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, to N835 per litre, asking its partner retail outlets in Lagos to sell at N890 from N930 per litre.
The refinery said:
Findings show that some filling stations in Ogun and Lagos states have reduced their prices, sparking a new round of competition in the sector.
It was observed that SGR, an independent marketer, also reduced its prices, selling below the approved Dangote rate.
Punch reports that full implementation of the naira-for-crude agreement and the current drop in crude prices will allow Dangte to reduce prices and sell petrol at an affordable rate.
However, S&P Global said that threats of further tariffs from the US and the ongoing arbitration with West Africa have led to a shift in European petrol export flows.
It disclosed that tariff threats and changes in Nigeria’s refining capacity have seen a flip in the trend this year, as large volumes are presently set to arrive in West Africa’s Offshore Lome hub.
Ship-tracking data from S&P Global Commodities at sea shows that about four million metric tonnes of petrol are projected to be delivered into West Africa from all locations over 30 days to April 27, the highest in over two years.
A previous report by TimesNow.com.ng shows that traders imported 156.897 million litres of petrol in eight days, between April 8 and 16, 2025.
The chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, said that petrol imports have dipped from 44.6 million litres daily in August 2024 to 14.7 million litres in April 2025.
