The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) has kicked against a lawsuit filed by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery seeking to invalidate fuel import licences issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Before now, the refinery had challenged the NMDPRA in court over the issuance of the permits to several marketers, insisting that such approvals contravened the spirit of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which encourages local refining and permits imports only in cases of supply shortfalls.
It later withdrew the case from the court. However, the latest court documents seen by Reuters showed that the refinery asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to void import permits granted by the NMDPRA to fuel importers. READ ALSO: Dangote Raises Investment In Ethiopia To $4bn In a Sunday statement in reply to Dangote, the association said it would not fold its arms and allow its depots to go into extinction through a court ruling.
They argued that the licences being challenged were not mere administrative favours, but legal instruments issued under the PIA to guarantee the country’s fuel supply security. The development followed the recently issued import license by the NMDPRA to some Nigerian oil marketers to bring in over 600,000 metric tonnes of petrol into the country.
Since the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery began supplying petroleum products to the local market, Dangote has repeatedly argued that continued issuance of fuel import licences to marketers undermines domestic refining, weakens investment incentives, and encourages dependence on imported products despite existing local capacity.
DAPPMAN, however, maintained that the NMDPRA acted within its statutory powers in approving the licences. It stressed that the regulator’s responsibility was to ensure uninterrupted product availability for Nigerian consumers and not to protect the commercial interests of any single refinery, regardless of its size.
The association stated that its members had invested billions of naira in petroleum depots, logistics systems, and compliance infrastructure based on the understanding that the licences granted to them were lawful, valid, and protected under the law. According to the marketers, any attempt to retroactively void those approvals would create uncertainty across the downstream petroleum sector at a time when stability in fuel supply remains critical.