All we want is a partnership with Dangote refinery – DAPPMAN reveals
The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) has openly demanded an open-door supply policy of fuel at competitive prices.
Ikem Ohia, DAPPMAN spokesperson, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, said the Association had no quarrel with Africa’s richest man.
However, he insisted that fuel queues and scarcity would persist if distribution remained restricted.
“Our concern is simple: access and price. At what price does he offer us, and do we even have the access to buy?” Ohia queried.
Ohia stressed that the Dangote Refinery, though now Nigeria’s dominant supplier, must work with marketers who for over two decades have built depots in Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar.
“What we ask is not subsidy. We are businessmen; he is a businessman. This is about commercial fairness.
“Let him use the depots already standing, and Nigerians will not queue for fuel,” he said.
He warned that reliance on retail gantry sales alone would cripple nationwide supply.
“Refineries worldwide sell in bulk through off-takers who lift massive quantities. Dangote cannot serve the nation by picking a handful of partners and leaving the rest of us stranded,” he added.
The rift, which has trailed the refinery since its operations began, deepened when Dangote invested in 4,000 CNG trucks to move products nationwide.
Marketers accused him of edging towards monopoly in the downstream sector.
Femi Otedola, billionaire businessman, waded into the row this week, cautioning DAPPMAN to “stop resisting progress” and instead restructure by considering the acquisition of the Port Harcourt Refinery to remain relevant in the new market reality.
On the same programme, Billy Gilly-Harris, president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), dismissed Dangote’s trucks as insufficient.
“Four thousand trucks cannot guarantee stable supply to the nooks and crannies of this country,” he argued.
For now, negotiations remain inconclusive, but it remains clear that the struggle over Nigeria’s fuel future has left Dangote Refinery and marketers in loggerheads over who should control the tap.
