The development comes just two days after the Dangote Petroleum Refinery reduced its ex-depot petrol price from N828 to N699 per litre, marking another major step in efforts to lower fuel costs across the country.
Speaking during a press briefing at the Lekki refinery on Sunday, President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, expressed concern that despite repeated price cuts at the gantry level, some marketers deliberately keep pump prices high, undermining the refinery’s intervention.
Dangote disclosed that MRS stations would begin selling petrol at N739 per litre from Tuesday, starting in Lagos, while other partner filling stations are expected to follow shortly.
According to him, certain officials had allegedly met with marketers and encouraged them to maintain high prices in order to frustrate the refinery’s price reduction initiative. He vowed to resist such moves and enforce the new pricing regime.
Dangote questioned why petrol pump prices should rise to N900 per litre when transportation costs from the refinery are between N10 and N15 per litre, insisting that the true cost should not exceed N715 per litre.
He also accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of issuing 47 import licences for over seven billion litres of petrol for the first quarter of 2026, a move he said was stifling local refining investments and worsening market distortions.
The billionaire businessman assured Nigerians that the N739 per litre pump price would be enforced, beginning with MRS stations, stressing that any marketer willing to buy directly from the refinery could purchase petrol at N699 per litre.
When contacted for a reaction, the spokesperson of the NMDPRA, George Ene-Ita, declined to comment, saying only, “For now, no comment.”
