The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has introduced a minimum purchase requirement of 500,000 litres of petrol for oil marketers wishing to benefit from its free delivery scheme, sparking debates across Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.

The refinery confirmed the new condition this week, stating that only marketers who buy half a million litres or more qualify for no-cost transportation of products. At the refinery’s gantry price of N820 per litre, this translates to a minimum outlay of about N410 million, equivalent to at least 11 trucks of 45,000 litres each.

A senior refinery official, who asked not to be named, explained, “Yes, the Minimum Order Quantity for the free delivery is 500,000 litres.”

The requirement has raised concerns among independent petroleum marketers, who argue that the benchmark is too high for most operators to meet. The National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, confirmed that members were struggling with the threshold.

“Yes, it is true. We have to buy a minimum of 500,000 litres. That requirement has not been easy to follow,” he said. Ukadike explained that the association was compiling a list of members who could pool resources to meet the refinery’s benchmark.

According to him, without such collaboration, the free delivery scheme could be hijacked by middlemen, leading to profiteering and bureaucracy in the fuel supply chain.

“The current situation would bring back middlemen. We usually just buy one truck before, but now we have to buy 11 trucks. That is why we are encouraging members to group themselves to access products directly from Dangote,” Ukadike stressed.