The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been instructed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other nearby refineries in naira rather than US dollars.
CEO of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zack Adedeji, made the announcement following an FEC meeting on Monday in Abuja that was presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
He said that the action would stabilize the price of gasoline, diesel, and other products at the pump in Nigeria and lessen the burden on the nation’s foreign expenditures.
According to Adedeji, the FEC mandated that the state-owned NNPCL start implementing the instruction in its entirety right away in order to increase Nigeria’s domestic output of refined petroleum products.
The revenue boss also said the Tinubu administration ordered that the sale of refined products from Dangote Refinery to oil marketers and distributors be denominated in naira and not in US dollars.
20 billionThe owner of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, had accused the authorities and International Oil Companies of frustrating crude supply to his $20bn facility sited at the Lekki Free Trade Zone near Lagos.
Regulatory authorities would later question the quality of petroleum products produced at the Dangote Refinery, but the billionaire businessman insisted that the quality of products at his refinery surpassed the ones imported by marketers.
Dangote commenced operations at his behemoth facility located in Lagos last December with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country, while petrol supply is expected to commence in August amid regulatory resistance.
