By Edu Abade
After sixteen solid months of waiting, the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited has disclosed that its much awaited Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, is ready to be released for sale in the Nigerian energy market.
It’s been over a year since its launch in May 2023, Dangote Refinery, as the company announced the roll out of the anticipated product from its $20 billion 650,000 barrels per day facility located along a vast expanse of land on the fringes of Ibeju-Lekki Community in Lagos State.
This is even as the chairman of the company, Aliko Dangote declared that “it is celebration day” for Nigerians since the country has been suffering artificial scarcity of the product in the last couple of weeks.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, September 3, 2024 during which he revealed the roll out plan, he said the quality of the product from the refinery matches that of other refining facilities anywhere around the world.
His words: “We are now going to have good petrol while the engines of your vehicles will last longer. You will not be having engine issues, which a lot of us were having. It won’t happen at all.
“The quality of our product here matches the quality of PMS anywhere in the world, even that of the United States of America, we will make sure that nobody will beat us in terms of quality.
Dangote told journalists that as soon as the company finalizes all the modalities with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the product will be released into the market.
“As soon as we finalize with the NNPCL, our product will start going into the market. We will help to restore production and confidence in industry and manufacturing sectors.
“We will also begin real import substitution, which is what we have, you know, saving and earning foreign exchange, which will stabilize the naira and it will also help reduce inflation and cost of living for all Nigerians, irrespective of their social and financial status,” he said.
Analysts expressed the hope that with the development, Nigerians will be spared the agony of having to cue for several hours before they buy the product anywhere across the country, adding: “It is unthinkable that a country so blessed with abundant crude oil and natural gas should be made to pass through the excruciating experience Nigerians are being made to pass through intermittently.”
