The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has finally entered into official agreement to sell crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in Naira.
According to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), with the agreement signed, Dangote Refinery will supply 25million litres of petrol per day to the Nigerian market throughout September with a plan to increase the supply to 30million litres from the month of October 2024.
Confirming signing of the agreement through a statement posted on its X handle, NMDPRA stated that “At the NMDPRA headquarters in Abuja, NNPCL reached an agreement to commence crude oil sale and supply to Dangote Refinery in local currency.
“The refinery is now poised to supply an initial 25 million litres of PMS into the domestic market this September. And will subsequently increase this amount to 30 million liters daily from October 2024.”
Aliko Dangote, the Chairman of the Dangote Group had earlier announced that the refinery has finally commenced production after several months of anticipation and politics of pricing and supply.
Dangote at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday confirmed that with the commencement of production in the refinery, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from its facility will hit the Nigerian market within the next 48hours depending on the arrangement of the NNPCL.
He said:
“Our PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) can be in filling stations within the next 48 hours depending on NNPCL.
“It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
“As soon as it is finalised, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market.”
Dangote thanked President Bola Tinubu for pushing for the sale of crude oil to the refinery in Naira which according to him will bring down by over 40% the demand for foreign exchange in the country.
“I want to thank President Bola Tinubu for creating this idea of Naira for crude and Naira for the product. Doing that will give a lot of stability to the Naira and remove 40 per cent of the demand for dollars. That’s not just it, there is a lot of round tripping,” Dangote stated.
Nigerians are very expectant as petrol currently sells for between N960 – 1100 per litre in many cities across the country including major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kaduna.