The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has approved the allocation of 19 cargoes of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company as part of the current efforts to improve petrol supply nationwide.
Some industry insiders on Thursday hinted that the state-controlled oil company had scheduled six cargoes of the supply to the local refinery for September and that the remaining 13 cargoes would be delivered to it next month.
The latest action of the NNPCL is not unconnected with the decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its last July 29 meeting on the sale of crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in Naira instead of the usual US dollars.
The decision of the Council was sequel to President Bola Tinubu’s suggestion that in order to ensure fuel prices stability in the downstream market and the Naira exchange rate at the FX market, there was the need to supply crude oil to local refineries in the local currency.
It would be recalled that the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, had on Tuesday said the deal to sell crude oil to the Dangote refinery in Naira would reduce pressure on its foreing exchange demand by at least 40 percent.
The industrialist thanked President Bola Tinubu and his administration fro providing such strategy as part of the efforts to ensure energy security in the country.
He said: “I want to personally also thank Mr. President for creating this idea of Naira for Crude and also Naira for product. This will give a lot of stability for the Naira because you remove 40% of the demand for dollars in the market. That’s not only it.
“Today’s discussion is only to thank God Almighty for bringing us into this period of now producing gasoline. I know that a lot of people think we won’t be able to deliver. But we’ve been able to deliver”, the industrialist added.
