Oil marketers have confirmed that they will start lifting Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery next week.

While some revealed that they had started sending trucks to the Lagos-based multi-billion dollar plant to load products from Sunday, others stated that their tankers would hit the refinery any day from next week. It was also gathered that some dealers are expecting imported petrol before the end of this month.

Although the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, recently announced that only NNPC would lift PMS from the Dangote refinery at the moment, oil marketers stated on Friday that they had already commenced moves to load their trucks with petrol from the plant. The initial daily supply from the refinery is anticipated to be 25 million litres. 

The minister disclosed this after NNPC raised the pump prices of petrol from about N620/litre to as high as N855 and N897/litre depending on the area of purchase.

The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, confirmed that many marketers had commenced moves to import petrol, as well as load from the Dangote refinery. He, however, did not state the price of the product being expected from the $20bn Lekki-based refinery, stressing that discussions were still ongoing.

The spokesperson for Dangote refinery, Tony Chiejina, had yet to respond to an enquiry on the matter.