Nigerian oil marketers, who are members of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association, have objected to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s decision to sell refined petroleum products in US dollars.
The Lagos-based refinery should not be permitted to sell to Nigerian marketers in dollars, PETROAN asked the Nigerian government. Billy Gillis-Harry, the president of the association, revealed this in an interview with reporters on Tuesday.
The refinery was selling roughly two million barrels of aviation fuel to the United States at the time, increasing its fuel exports to other countries.
Additionally, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria stated that the Dangote refinery’s production of polypropylene would revitalise Nigeria’s flagging textile sector and save the nation $267 million in import expenses.
Since the Nigerian government had stopped selling oil to the refinery in naira, the Dangote refinery declared last week that it would no longer sell fuel to customers in naira.
The PETROAN leader responded to this on Tuesday, stating that Dangote’s remark caused tension among marketers who now panic-buy petrol out of concern for a potential shortage or price spike.
He claims that permitting the selling of petroleum in US dollars will boost inflation, put undue strain on the economy, and harm it.
“PETROAN is against petroleum products or any other products being sold in Nigeria in US dollars. Such an approach, in our opinion, would hurt the economy, placing excessive strain on foreign exchange and making Nigeria’s already difficult inflationary position worse.
“To safeguard the economy and the well-being of Nigerians, we implore the government to guarantee that all domestic transactions are carried out in the local currency, the naira,” he said.
PETROAN also expressed concern over Nigeria’s incapacity to provide the nation’s expanding petroleum product demand, even after three local refineries were put into service.
The supply from these refineries was still not enough to meet the nation’s needs, despite efforts to increase domestic output, it was stated.
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has two operational refineries, and the Dangote refinery, which can produce 650,000 barrels per day, is also operational, according to a statement issued by PETROAN and signed by Dr Joseph Obele, the association’s national public relations officer.
The petroleum supply chain also includes several importers and modular refineries.
However, the group pointed out that the nation’s daily petroleum needs cannot be sufficiently met by the local output, which has a combined capacity of roughly 835,000 barrels per day.
