By Yahaya, Umar Abuja
Federal Executive Council, FEC, yesterday directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in Naira.
Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS Chairman, Dr Zack Adedeji, who made this known after the weekly FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja, pointed out that selling crude oil in local currency was aimed at stabilising pump price of petrol, diesel and other products in Nigeria.
In this vein, Adedeji said FEC ordered NNPCL to immediately begin the full implementation of the directive to boost local production of refined petroleum products.
According to him, the council ordered that the sale of refined products from Dangote Refinery to oil marketers and distributors be denominated in Naira and not in US dollars.
It would be recalled that the Management of Dangote Industries Limited had earlier accused International Oil Companies, IOCs, of frustrating its refinery operations.
The company in a recent statement said IOCs insisted on selling crude oil to its refinery through their foreign agents.
“When cargoes are offered to the oil company by the trading arms, it is sometimes at a $2-$4 (per barrel) premium above the official price set by NUPRC”, the Vice-President of Oil & Gas, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr DVG Edwin, said.
Besides, Edwin commended the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, for its various interventions in the oil company’s crude supply requests from IOCs, and for publishing the Domestic Crude Supply.
“Data on platforms like Platts and Argus shows that the price offered to us is way higher than the market prices tracked by these platforms”, the statement read.
The refinery located in Lagos commenced operation last December with 350,000 barrels a day production capacity with the target to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the refinery is supplying diesel and aviation fuel to marketers and petrol supply is expected to commence in August.
