The Presidential Committee on the Sale of Crude Oil and Refined Products has announced that the Dangote Refinery will exclusively sell petrol to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and a member of the committee, made this disclosure in Abuja on Friday.
According to Adedeji, the loading of the first batch of petrol from the Dangote Refinery is scheduled to begin on Sunday, September 15.
He also revealed that starting from October 1, NNPCL will supply crude oil to the Dangote Refinery, which will be paid for in naira.
In exchange, the refinery will supply petrol and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market, also to be paid for in naira.
“But for now, PMS will only be sold to NNPC. NNPC will then sell to various marketers.”
Adedeji’s stand was later confirmed during a press conference held in Abuja by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun.
He also noted that interested marketers would have to buy the product from the national oil firm through its trading company.
This was part of the agreement reached with the management of Dangote Refinery on the commercial terms for the supply of crude oil to the refinery and the off-taking and distribution of petrol and diesel from the facility.
The latest development, however, contradicts NNPCL’s claim in a statement early this month that it does not intend to be the sole distributor of petrol produced by the Dangote refinery.
This arrangement means that NNPCL will be the sole buyer of petrol from the Dangote Refinery, and will subsequently supply it to marketers and other stakeholders in the domestic market.
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE