Petroleum marketers have accused the Dangote refinery of failing to load their trucks, even weeks after payments were made.

The claims came in response to a statement by the company’s Vice President, Devakumar Edwin, who insisted that marketers should present their trucks for loading.

Two marketers, speaking anonymously to avoid potential backlash, said that they had paid in advance for millions of litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) over two weeks ago but had still not received their deliveries, according to The Punch.

They claimed that the refinery had introduced a new policy that cut their allocations after the ex-depot price was recently increased.

“We are seriously disappointed with the current situation at Dangote. Can you imagine that we have been paying for products for two weeks now, and we haven’t been allowed to load products? It looks like the refinery only wants to sell to the 20 marketers and abandon those who paid earlier, even during the issue with PENGASSAN. The refinery is also reducing the quantity due to the recent change in price,” one bulk buyer said on Wednesday.

Another marketer, who confirmed the situation, said many marketers had borrowed heavily from commercial banks to fund their purchases and were now facing losses from the accumulating interest on idle funds.

He also revealed that the refinery had reduced marketers’ allocations after recently raising its gantry price from N820 to N877 per litre.

“For over two weeks, many of us have paid for millions of litres of PMS using borrowed funds, yet there has been neither product supply nor official communication from the management. But they are loading products for their partners,” the marketer lamented.

“This action will put many of us in serious financial distress. We paid for products before the refinery reached a new supply agreement with its partners, but now they are serving the partners first and reducing our volumes because of the new price.”

He alleged that while independent marketers were left waiting, major distributors like Bovas and A.A. Rano were being prioritized for loading.

“We paid before them, but they are now being prioritised,” he stated.

During a tour of the refinery last weekend, Edwin dismissed rumours that fuel loading had been halted due to maintenance activities.

The brief pause in loading was also said to have contributed to the current spike in petrol prices, which have risen from N865 to N920 per litre.