Dangote Petroleum Refinery has resumed gantry loading of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in naira, ending a week-long suspension of truck loading, while increasing its ex-depot petrol price to ₦1,215 per litre, Petroleumprice.ng has gathered. The refinery had suspended both coastal and gantry loading on Wednesday, July 15, after introducing a dollar-denominated pricing template for refined petroleum products, a move that disrupted supply across the downstream sector and forced marketers to source products from private depots at significantly higher prices.
The new gantry price of ₦1,215 per litre represents an increase of ₦140 per litre from the previous ex-depot price of ₦1,075 per litre, translating to a 13.02 per cent increase.
Petroleumprice.ng gathered from a refinery source that customers have now been notified of the resumption of gantry operations, with loading expected to commence immediately under the revised naira pricing.
The development comes barely a day after the refinery resumed coastal loading of PMS, introducing a new coastal price of $1,161.23 per metric tonne, up from the previous $1,044.62/MT, representing an increase of $116.61/MT, or 11.2 per cent.
Industry sources had earlier disclosed to Petroleumprice.ng that while coastal loading resumed on Tuesday, July 21, gantry loading was expected to follow shortly with a possible upward price review, a projection that has now materialised.
The suspension of loading last week triggered significant supply disruptions across the downstream sector. As product availability tightened, the average ex-depot price of petrol at private depots in Lagos rose from about ₦1,075 per litre before the suspension to approximately ₦1,275 per litre, an increase of ₦200 per litre, or about 18.6 per cent, as marketers adjusted prices to reflect rising replacement costs.
Before suspending sales, Dangote Refinery had attributed its migration to dollar transactions to challenges in sourcing sufficient crude oil under the Federal Government's naira-for-crude arrangement. Under the refinery's earlier pricing template, PMS was priced at $0.779 per litre, Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) at $1.087 per litre, and Jet A1 aviation fuel at $0.942 per litre.
The refinery's decision to resume gantry loading in naira is expected to improve inland product distribution after days of supply constraints. However, the higher ex-depot price is also expected to influence pricing across private depots, with marketers likely to adjust pump prices in line with the new loading cost over the coming days.
Industry operators told Petroleumprice.ng that attention will now shift to how quickly the renewed loading schedule translates into improved nationwide availability and whether the resumption helps moderate the supply pressures that have characterised the downstream market over the past week.