Depot Owners Hike Ex-Depot Petrol Prices as Dangote Refinery Plans Maintenance

|By Babatunji Wusu

Petroleum products depot owners and marketers have raised ex-depot petrol prices following reports of a planned shutdown of the Dangote Refinery’s petrol unit for maintenance and upgrades.

Market checks on Saturday showed that several major depots adjusted their prices to about N800 per litre, up from the N740–N780 range recorded earlier in the week. Depots affected include Ranoil, Optima, AYM Shafa and others. In contrast, Dangote Refinery and Aiteo sold at lower levels of N702 and N740 per litre respectively.

Industry operators linked the price increase to the expected turnaround maintenance at the Dangote Refinery, which has become a major supply source since it commenced local production. Commenting on the plan, Vice President of Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, said the refinery was already operating above installed capacity in several units and needed maintenance to unlock higher output. “In most departments, our production levels have gone beyond 100 percent. We just need to remove constraints to raise overall output,” he said, according to Platts (S&P Global).

The development has added pressure to the downstream market, where pump prices remained elevated. As of Saturday afternoon, retail petrol prices ranged between N739 and N910 per litre across major filling stations nationwide, reflecting supply concerns and sustained cost pressures in the sector.