Several Nigerian filling stations in the federal capital territory, Abuja, have remained shut for more than four days over the delayed rollout of Dangote Refinery’s free fuel distribution scheme.

News360 Info reports that partners in the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery fuel distribution initiative, including MRS and Conoil filling stations, are experiencing dry tanks, causing supply disruption for Nigerians in the last four days.

The development was confirmed by the filling station manager of the affected retail outlets in Abuja on Monday.

“Yes, for four days we are yet to have either fuel or diesel. We are waiting for supply from Dangote Refinery.

“We were told the product will hit the road from Tuesday, so from Wednesday or so, the products may arrive,” a filling station manager, who preferred anonymity, told DAILY POST.

This comes as Dangote Group, in a terse notice on its X account on Monday, announced that Conoil, Eternal Super, Nepal Energies, Kifayat Global Energy, and Riquest and Gas have partnered with the refinery for its fuel distribution scheme.

The firm had earlier announced that its about 1000 compressed natural gas trucks are expected to hit Nigerian roads on September 15, 2025, but that has not been the case for the $19 billion refinery.

This was followed by the suspension of self-collection gantry sales of premium motor spirit, which the plant had earlier fixed at N820 per litre.

Meanwhile, Dangote Refinery confirmed that it would resume self-collection gantry sales of fuel to its customers from Tuesday.

Speaking on the development, the national president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, blamed the supply disruption in some filling stations on the fears raised by stakeholders over the entrance of Dangote into the downstream sector.

He stressed that the downstream cannot be driven solely by a single player, in this case- the Dangote refinery.

According to him, the refinery may not have the requisite capacity or efficiency to deliver petroleum products seamlessly to Nigerians without necessarily creating supply disruption.

He urged that Dangote Refinery embrace marketers and the concept of division of labour to guarantee efficiency.

Harry cautioned that Nigerians must be wary of the entrance of Dangote Refinery into fuel distribution.

“It is a Herculean task to undertake all the processes required to transport the product from one location to another.

“In this case, one company is insisting that it wants to build the refinery, manage the depot, and ultimately be the retail outlet owner of petroleum products; this is exactly what is going on.

“It’s not going to be a task to accomplish because the current process took a decade to crystallise to where we are. We consistently encourage Dangote Refinery to embrace others in the industry.

“Efficient spread of operations, capacity – even if Dangote imports 50,000 trucks, it is not going to be an easy sell. But if everyone is managing their own trucks, it would bring about efficiency.

“The concept of division of labour among stakeholders is very important to bring in efficiency.

“Dangote’s advent into the downstream sector should not be the sole albatross. If his ideal is to be the sole controller of energy in Nigeria, Nigerians must be wary because we have experience in other sectors like cement and sugar, where he has his own trucks and outlets across the country; the prices of cement have remained high,” he told.

News360 Info reports that Dangote Refinery, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have been in a persistent face-off over the oil firm’s fuel distribution scheme.

DAPPMAN, NUPENG, had accused Dangote Refinery of planning to stifle competition with the fuel distribution initiative.

Dangote had dismissed the claim, accusing DAPPMAN of demanding N1.5 trillion in fuel subsidy claims, an allegation also denied by the marketers.

News360 Info reports that fuel prices stand between N865 and N920 per litre in Lagos and Abuja, respectively.