Fuel marketers in Nigeria are joining forces to minimize losses and ensure steady supply amid an intense price war triggered by Dangote Refinery and NNPC Retail Limited.

Over the past few months, Dangote Refinery and NNPC Retail have engaged in aggressive price cuts to capture more market share. Dangote’s partners, including Ardova Petroleum, MRS, Heyden, Optima Energy, Techno Oil, and Hyde, sell petrol at about N875 per litre, while NNPC outlets offer it slightly cheaper at N870 per litre, giving consumers more affordable choices.

However, these fluctuating prices have put independent marketers under pressure. To cope, many are forming cooperative partnerships to purchase smaller truckloads of petrol—about 15,000 litres each instead of 45,000 litres—to sell quickly and avoid losses from sudden price drops.

Mr. Chinedu Ukadike, Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), explained:
“We are doing this to tame losses so that by the time Dangote or NNPC decide to change their petrol prices, our members will have finished selling the 15,000-litre volume purchased.”

He added, “If you decide to buy in larger quantities now, I can assure you that the marketer would run into massive losses, because before you finish selling that volume, the bigger players might have slashed prices.”

Ukadike also urged the government to ensure all four state-owned refineries operate at full capacity to prevent monopolies in the downstream sector, which could hurt competition and independent marketers.

This cooperative buying strategy highlights the challenges smaller marketers face in Nigeria’s volatile fuel market as they try to stay afloat amid fierce competition and shifting prices.