Dangote Refinery Receives First Supplies Of Crude Oil In Naira Sale From NNPCL
The much anticipated Naira sale of Crude Oil to Dangote Refinery in Lagos State has commenced.
A senior Official of Dangote refinery and some federal government officials confirmed that four cargoes of crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) under the naira-for-crude sale agreement, were received.
This is even as the refinery expects to receive more cargoes in coming weeks.
It was gathered that the four cargoes of crude were delivered to the refinery within the past three weeks when the government kick-started the sale of crude to local refineries in the local currency.
It was also revealed that Dangote refinery was set to sell refined petroleum directly to domestic dealers.
The official disclosed that the programme started with the Dangote refinery as the only petrol-producing facility in Nigeria at the moment.
It is expected that the current naira for crude arrangement will last for six months, although the cost of crude oil per barrel was not stated.
“The naira-for-crude deal has started. The Dangote refinery has received four cargoes so far and we are still expecting more. The four cargoes have been delivered to the refinery within the past three weeks. We are still expecting more cargo in the coming week.”
“Don’t forget that this first phase of the naira-crude sale is just for six months. The government may decide to renew it at the end of the first six months and they may decide not to. So, we don’t know what will happen yet after the first six months.”
With a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Dangote refinery had faced significant challenges.
At some point the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, had cried out, saying some international oil companies were planning to sabotage the investment by refusing to supply crude.
The Dangote Group had alleged that the IOCs insisted on selling crude oil to its refinery through their foreign agents.
It said the local price of crude would continue to increase because the trading arms offered cargoes at $2 to $4 per barrel, above the official price.
It is unclear what the impact of this arrangement will mean to the price of petrol per litre, currently, petrol sells for as high as over N1030 per litre at the NNPCL fuelling stations.
