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Barring any hitch, the first batch of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, will be distributed to filling stations for sale across the country on Sunday, September 15.
On Friday, the Federal Government announced the completion of all agreements for the loading of the commodity from the refinery.
However, petrol from the over 600 million barrels per day refinery will only be sold to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), which will in turn sell to marketers for distribution across the country from Sunday.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, who chaired the Presidential Committee on the sales of crude oil and refined products for domestic consumption in Naira, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
Dr. Zacch Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) who represented Edun at the event, outlined the details of the agreement, saying that starting on October 1, NNPC Ltd. will start supplying the Dangote Refinery with approximately 385 kbpd of crude oil with payment in Naira.
In exchange, the Dangote Refinery will supply PMS and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market with payment in Naira.
“Diesel will be sold in Naira by the Dangote Refinery to any interested off-taker. PMS will only be sold to NNPC, and NNPC will then sell to various marketers for now,” he said.
Edun promised to pay for all related regulatory costs (NPA, NIMASA, etc.) in Naira.
“We are also setting up a one-stop shop that will coordinate service provision from all regulatory and security agencies and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth implementation of this initiative. This will be located in the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). Lagos.
“The technical committee that worked to flesh out this initiative will transition to an implementation execution and monitoring committee that will be working out of Lagos for the next three to six months,” he said.
Edun recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, approved the sale of crude oil to local refineries in Naira and the corresponding purchase of petroleum products in Naira.
He said that the initiative would help reduce pressure on the naira, eliminate unnecessary transaction costs, and improve the availability of petroleum products in the country.
The minister said that the implementation committee chaired by him and the other technical committee had worked intensely with NNPCL and Dangote Refinery to fashion out the details of the modalities for the implementation of FEC approval.
“We would sincerely like to thank President Tinubu for championing this novel initiative and assure him that he can count on us to implement his vision.
“I will also like to thank everyone for the hard work and patriotism exhibited over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
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