Dangote cuts petrol gantry price by up to ₦55, as NNPC's ₦66 discount window closes

The Dangote refinery has lowered the price at which marketers load petrol, according to market reports over the weekend. Pump prices could start to ease from this week.

Daily Post reported on 1 November that the gantry price fell by ₦35, from ₦1,250 to ₦1,215 a litre. Olatide Jeremiah, chief executive of the pricing platform Petroleumprice.ng, confirmed the cut and said it came from the refinery's consortium marketers.

Legit.ng reported a slightly different picture on 2 November. It said the price dropped by ₦55, from ₦1,265 to ₦1,210 a litre, and linked the cut to a fall in EBOB, the European petrol benchmark used in Dangote's pricing.

Both reports put the new loading price at roughly ₦1,210 to ₦1,215. They disagree on the starting point. We will update this story when the refinery or its marketers publish a figure.

Depots and pumps

Independent depots had already started to adjust. Legit.ng, citing Petroleumprice.ng data, put the average Lagos depot price at ₦1,259.17 a litre on Friday 30 October, about ₦41 lower than a day earlier. Daily Post said depots including Soroman, Aiteo and Masters were selling at ₦1,255 to ₦1,300.

At the pump, prices were higher still. Before the cut, filling stations across the country were charging between ₦1,370 and ₦1,429 a litre, Daily Post reported. Abubakar Maigandi, president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, welcomed the move. "It is a good thing for Nigerians," he said.

The end of NNPC's discount

The cut lands as an NNPC promotion expires. NNPC Retail began a ₦66 a litre discount on 1 October to mark the 66th Independence anniversary, paid through its Fuel App. It extended the offer twice, most recently to 31 October. NNPC said the discount was customer relief, not a return of subsidy.

In the last week of October, NNPC raised its standard pump price in Lagos to ₦1,369 a litre and in Abuja to ₦1,405, Legit.ng reported. App users paid about ₦66 less.

We found no NNPC statement extending the discount into November. If it has lapsed, NNPC app users may see little change at the pump even if the Dangote cut is passed on.

What it means for you

A lower gantry price usually reaches the pump within days, but not evenly. Stations far from Lagos pay more to truck fuel, so the saving may be smaller in the north and east.

If you were buying at NNPC stations with the app discount, check the price before you fill up this week. The end of the discount could cancel out part of the Dangote cut.

For transport operators and small businesses, any fall in petrol prices helps, though diesel, which most generators and lorries use, was not part of this cut.

Oil prices remain high, with Brent around $113 a barrel at the end of October. That leaves room for prices to rise again if the naira weakens or crude climbs further.