IPMAN urges members to buy Dangote Refinery shares

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has urged its members nationwide to invest in the planned initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, saying the share sale will allow them to own stakes in the refinery.

The association said the IPO would allow independent petroleum marketers to move beyond being buyers of refined products to becoming shareholders in one of Nigeria’s largest refining assets.

The National President of IPMAN, Abubakar Shettima, made the call in a statement on Thursday while congratulating the management and board of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals on the planned public share sale.

Shettima urged members to take advantage of the offering, describing it as an opportunity for them to acquire equity in the refinery.

“The National President of IPMAN therefore calls on her members nationwide to aggressively capitalise on this share sale, as it is a rare, strategic opportunity to evolve from off-takers of petroleum products into equity owners of the primary production infrastructure.

“This investment will similarly strengthen our collective capacity to guarantee affordable, steady, unhindered fuel distribution across all 36 states, and ensure price stability at our pumps,” he said.

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IPMAN also appealed to Dangote Refinery to expand its direct allocation of Premium Motor Spirit to cover all registered independent petroleum marketers.

“Rather than limiting access or cutting off select distribution channels, IPMAN urges the refinery to expand its direct allocation framework to comprehensively capture every registered independent marketer nationwide, instead of a select few, as this is crucial to eliminating anti-competitive bottlenecks, suppressing exorbitant logistical middlemen fees, and ensuring that affordable, locally refined fuel reaches every citizen,” the statement said.

The association said restricting direct supplies to selected marketers could create distribution bottlenecks and increase logistics costs.

Shettima urged the refinery to extend its direct allocation system to all registered independent marketers instead of limiting access to selected distributors.

IPMAN also called on the Federal Government to discourage continued importation of petrol, arguing that greater reliance on locally refined products would reduce pressure on the country’s foreign exchange and lower distribution costs.

Dangote Refinery has a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, making it one of the largest single-train refineries in the world.