The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery are at odds over the implementation of the Federal Government’s naira-for-crude initiative, with both sides offering conflicting accounts of crude oil supplies under the arrangement.
According to The PUNCH, the NNPC maintained that it had supplied all crude oil cargoes available under the naira-for-crude policy to the Dangote refinery and had not withheld any allocation. The state-owned oil company, however, acknowledged that actual deliveries depended on factors such as crude availability, cargo nomination schedules and the refinery’s operational plans.
The disagreement follows Dangote Refinery’s decision to suspend naira-denominated sales of refined petroleum products to marketers and adopt dollar pricing, citing inadequate crude oil supplies under the Federal Government-backed initiative.
Responding to the development, NNPC spokesperson Andy Odeh said the company had fulfilled all its obligations under the policy.
“As a 7.25 per cent equity shareholder in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, NNPC Limited has a direct and genuine interest in seeing the refinery operate at full capacity,” he said.
Odeh explained that the company had allocated all crude cargoes available under the naira-denominated arrangement to the refinery in 2026, stressing that there had been no deliberate withholding of supplies.
He added that NNPC and the refinery remained in close engagement to resolve any operational gaps, insisting that both organisations shared the objective of ensuring the refinery operates at full capacity to serve the domestic market.
However, the pap quoted a senior Dangote Group official as saying the refinery was receiving only about four million barrels of crude oil monthly under the naira-for-crude arrangement, far below the roughly 13 million barrels reportedly envisaged following President Bola Tinubu’s 2024 directive.
The official, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the shortfall had made it impossible for the refinery to continue selling petroleum products in naira.
According to the source, the refinery has now shifted its focus towards exporting more refined products to earn foreign exchange while processing whatever crude it receives under the naira arrangement for domestic supply through the NNPC.
The official argued that Nigeria’s policy of granting import licences and foreign exchange for fuel imports was difficult to justify when the refinery’s production capacity could meet the country’s petrol, diesel and aviation fuel requirements if supplied with sufficient crude.
The refinery also pledged to account for every barrel of crude received under the naira arrangement by supplying equivalent refined products in naira through the NNPC.
Last week, Dangote Refinery introduced a dollar-denominated ex-depot pricing template, fixing petrol at $0.779 per litre, diesel at $1.087 per litre, and aviation fuel at $0.942 per litre.
The move has generated concern among petroleum marketers, who fear it could push up domestic fuel prices, although the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has said the pricing model is consistent with the Petroleum Industry Act, which permits refiners to recover their production costs.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that petrol supply worsened in Abuja on Monday as several filling stations suspended sales while pump prices rose to between N1,250 and N1,280 per litre at outlets with available stock.
The newspaper also reported increased truck activity at private depots in Lagos as marketers scrambled for supplies following several days of suspended fuel loading at the Dangote refinery amid expectations of further wholesale price increases.
Reacting to the development, Professor Emeritus of Petroleum Economics and Principal Facilitator at the FUPRE Energy Business School, Wumi Iledare, said the refinery’s decision to price products in dollars reflected commercial realities in the global petroleum market rather than an attempt to undermine the naira.
He noted that while dollar pricing could expose marketers to foreign exchange risks, it would not automatically result in higher fuel prices. Instead, domestic pump prices would increasingly mirror movements in international crude oil prices and the naira-dollar exchange rate.
Iledare further argued that the Dangote refinery had significantly strengthened Nigeria’s energy security by reducing dependence on imported fuel, though domestic refining alone could not shield consumers from global oil market dynamics or exchange-rate fluctuations. He urged policymakers to focus on creating an efficient, competitive and transparent downstream petroleum market rather than the currency used for pricing petroleum products.
