Federal Executive Council (FEC) has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States greenback, as part of strategic moves to boost local petroleum production and crash the per litre pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popular known as Petrol, now being sold between N750 and N800 in most of the independent marketers'filing stations because of the current scarcity of the product in the country
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) boss Zack Adedeji made this known to newsmen, after a FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja on Monday.
The measure according to him, will reduce the strain on the country’s foreign spendings and stabilise the pump price of petrol, diesel and other products in Nigeria.
Adedeji said FEC ordered that the government-owned NNPCL immediately begin the full implementation of the directive to boost local production of refined petroleum products in Nigeria.
The revenue boss also said the Tinubu administration 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 will be recalled that foremost industrialist and owner of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, had accused the authorities and International Oil Companies of frustrating crude supply to his $20bn facility sited at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial city
The Africa's richest man also engaged the regulatory authorities who later questioned the quality of petroleum products being produced at the Dangote Refinery but the billionaire businessman insisted that the quality of products at his refinery surpassed the ones being imported by marketers into the country
Dangote commenced operations at his behemoth facility located in Lagos last December with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country while petrol supply is expected to commence in August amid regulatory resistance.
Similarly the Port Harcourt Refinery is expected to begin production of petrol in the coming month of August according to the Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari
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