Dangote cuts petrol to ₦1,075 a litre and opens sales to all marketers

The downward run in Nigerian fuel prices rolled on into July. The Dangote Refinery cut its ex-depot (ex-gantry) price for petrol (PMS) by ₦50, from ₦1,125 to ₦1,075 per litre — a 4.4% reduction — with the new rate applying immediately. A senior refinery official confirmed the change, which outlets reported in the first days of July 2026.

A second cut in a week — and the fourth in four weeks

The reduction was the refinery's second price cut in a single week, coming just days after an earlier drop from ₦1,175 to ₦1,125 per litre, and — by Nigerian outlets' running tally — its fourth reduction in four weeks. Taken together, Dangote has trimmed its ex-depot petrol price by a cumulative ₦200 per litre since 30 May 2026, extending the softer trend that began in mid-June when the refinery cut its price to ₦1,175 as crude eased after the US–Iran ceasefire.

Coastal and gantry prices converge

Alongside the cut, the refinery aligned its coastal loading price with the ex-depot rate at ₦1,075 per litre, closing the spread that had previously made coastal supply cheaper than loading at the gantry. A single price across both channels removes an arbitrage that marketers had used to optimise where they lifted product, and simplifies the pricing signal that filters through to depots and stations.

Opening the gates: the end of the 20-marketer consortium

The more structural change sat in who can buy. Dangote discontinued its 20-member marketer consortium — the limited group that had been loading product under a fixed arrangement — and opened direct loading from both the gantry and coastal terminals to all qualified marketers. Widening access is designed to deepen competition in Nigeria's deregulated downstream sector: more marketers sourcing directly from the refinery, rather than through a narrow intermediary pool, should in principle pass more of the ex-depot cut through to the pump.

What it means for pump prices

Ex-depot is the wholesale price marketers pay before transport and station margins, so retail prices lag it and still vary widely by location — the deregulated pump price has been running roughly ₦1,100–₦1,400 a litre across the country. A ₦50 ex-depot cut, layered on the ₦200 of reductions since late May, puts fresh downward pressure on those retail prices in the days after each move, particularly at stations lifting directly from the refinery. Marketers quoted through the recent cuts have said sub-₦1,000 pump prices are possible if crude stays soft and the naira holds. The live figure Opaindex tracks for petrol (PMS) carries its own source, freshness (asOf) and confidence, and the national average the NBS publishes runs higher because it is rural-inclusive and lags moves like this one.

The bigger picture

Cheaper petrol filters through the whole economy: it lowers the haulage and diesel (AGO)-linked distribution costs that sit underneath food, cement and other goods, and it eases the imported-fuel pressure on the trade account — local refining displacing cargoes was one driver behind Nigeria's record Q1 2026 trade surplus. A softer fuel bill is also one of the conditions that helps cool the broader inflation the CBN is watching before it resumes rate cuts. For the live, sourced fuel prices behind this story — petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas (LPG) — see the Nigeria fuel price hub. The figures in this article are as reported by Nigerian outlets in early July 2026 across the sources listed below.