Market News

By Dare Olawin

The Dangote refinery has officially announced that it is halting the supply of petroleum products in naira.

In a statement by the refinery on Wednesday, the Dangote Group said the suspension is temporary.

This followed reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited might have stopped the sale of crude in naira to the Dangote refinery.

“Dear calued customers, we wish to inform you that, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has temporarily halted the sale of petroleum products in Naira. This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in U.S. dollars.

“To date, our sales of petroleum products in naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude we have received. As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the statement said.

It also debunked online reports that it was stopping loading due to an incident of ticketing fraud.

“This is a malicious falsehood. Our systems are robust and we have had no fraud issues.

“We remain committed to serving the Nigerian market efficiently and sustainably. As soon as we receive an allocation of naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in naira,” the statement said.