Seated behind a bottle of clear liquid on today, Aliko Dangote firmly drove a stake into the heart of the imperial London/Rotterdam petro-mafia, when he officially debuted the long-awaited delivery of Nigerian-produced “premium motor spirit” (pms, or gasoline) to the Nigerian-consuming market. His statement was a direct indictment of the entire imperial financial monopoly, which for decades had forced Nigeria to sell its high-quality crude oil to international marketers and buy back inferior-quality refined petroleum at inflated prices.
“This is the real deal,” Dangote asserted, emphasizing something that to Nigerians would be a new experience: Pure pms is essentially colorless: unadulterated. Referring to a sample of his diesel fuel, the CEO further explained, “This is called Euro-5 diesel. It contains less than 10 parts per million of sulfur.” Not only would his products make vehicles perform better and last longer, he assured, but, because it is higher quality, it would also be good for the health of both the people and the environment.
Not only has Dangote broken through on the international supply level, but seemingly on the domestic level as well. Dangote announced that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulators Commission would begin supplying 29 million barrels of (Nigerian) crude to his refinery in October. Not done yet, Dangote further stated that he would now be able to “track every truckload” of refined fuel all the way to delivery, dealing a solid blow to the “informal” market of petrol highway robber-barons.
