A senior management official of the Dangote Group on Monday revealed that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has been subsidising the petrol and diesel it sells to the Nigerian market.
According to the official, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence due to the lack of authorisation to speak, the company’s N1,200/litre ex-depot price for petrol is below the competitive market price, considering the jump in crude prices following the US-Iran war.
The war in the Middle East triggered an oil price surge when the Strait of Hormuz was blocked by Iran. From $66 per barrel on February 28, Brent, the global benchmark for crude, jumped above $100 a barrel.
As a result, Dangote raised its petrol gantry price from N774 to N1,200 as of the time of filing this report. The oil price hike also affected diesel and aviation fuel.
In the aviation sector, airlines are planning to shut down due to an over 350 per cent rise in Jet A-1 prices. Dangote supplies over 90 per cent of the country’s aviation fuel needs.
The Vice President of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, Allen Onyema, recently disclosed that prices skyrocketed from about N900 per litre before the Iran crisis to between N2,700 and N2,900, with some marketers selling as high as N3,500.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Dangote refinery official said the $20bn plant has already optimised the prices of petrol and diesel, stressing that it couldn’t have subsidised aviation fuel too.
As a result, he stated that jet fuel is being sold by the refinery at the market price.
The official blamed the high crude prices for the rise in fuel prices. “With the crude price moving up steeply, we try to optimise the price of PMS (petrol) as much as possible to help the public. To some extent, we try to optimise the price of AGO (diesel) too. We can’t be subsidising everything, and so, we sell the jet fuel at the market price,” the source stated.
The official replied in the affirmative when asked if his use of the word ‘optimise’ means subsidy.
Another official of the Dangote Group disclosed that the company sells its aviation fuel to marketers below N2,000 per litre.
“I can confirm to you that our jet fuel price as of this (Monday) morning is N1,799. It was even lower before this time. That’s how much we sell to the marketers who later sell to the airlines. We are selling at less than N2,000 a litre,” the source disclosed.
Last week, a report by the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria put Dangote’s jet fuel gantry price at N1,732 per litre, while the cost of imported aviation fuel was N1,835.
The PUNCH reports that fuel marketers have remained silent despite efforts to make them reveal how much they sell the product to the airlines.
Earlier, in a letter dated April 14, 2026, and addressed to the Executive Secretary of the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, the President of AON, Abdulmunaf Sarina, said the surge in the price of Jet A1 had become unbearable for operators.
AON had in its letter said “the price of Jet A1 as sold by marketers has risen significantly from the initial N900/litre as at February 28, 2026, to N3,300/litre as of today.
“This represents an increase of over 300 per cent. This astronomical and artificial increase is not commensurate with the rise in crude oil prices and is well above international market benchmarks, which reflect approximately a 30 per cent increase in crude oil cost. For the past weeks, airlines have endured this burden and continued operations out of patriotism and in the spirit of service to the nation. However, the situation has now become unbearable and clearly unsustainable,” the letter stated.
It urged MEMAN to prevail on its members to proportionately adjust jet fuel prices in line with international market realities, “as airlines can no longer sustain purchases at the current exorbitant rates”.
Responding, MEMAN attributed the rising cost of aviation turbine kerosene to global factors, particularly disruptions linked to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The marketers expressed surprise at the N3,300 per litre price referenced by airline operators, stating that their internal survey showed significantly lower prices. The marketers said they would not be able to disclose a particular price, but N3,300 is over N1,000 above the normal price.
”In light of the above, we must express our surprise at the price of N3,300 per litre stated in your letter as the price being charged to some airline operators. MEMAN members do not discuss pricing, as this will be against competition law; however, the price of N3,300 is over N1,000 higher than our average market survey price of Jet A1 carried out for this exercise, after receipt of your letter,” MEMAN explained.
It, therefore, advised operators to explore alternative suppliers offering more competitive rates, saying, “We would therefore strongly encourage any operators currently being charged at those levels to exercise their commercial right to seek alternative suppliers.”
Since April 16, it has been observed that the situation has remained the same as airlines threaten to shut down their operations due to higher fuel costs.
Dare Olawin is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over a decade of reporting experience. He began his career as a community reporter and now covers the energy sector, including oil, gas, electricity, and renewables. Dare’s work reflects hands-on newsroom experience, professional development through workshops and conferences, and a strong commitment to accurate and insightful journalism.
