Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has begun domestic gasoline sales, with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) serving as its sole buyer, officials said. The 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, which aims to ease Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports, started supplying gasoline in September, with NNPC paying for deliveries in U.S. dollars this month. A crude-for-gasoline swap arrangement, settled in naira, is expected to start in October.
The refinery’s ex-refinery gasoline price is set at $736 per ton, or 898.78 naira per liter ($0.55/l), with the retail price in Lagos at 950.22 naira per liter, reflecting recent hikes following the reduction of government fuel subsidies. Gasoline prices are negotiated directly between buyers and sellers under Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act.
NNPC has long relied on fuel imports to meet domestic demand but hopes Dangote’s ramped-up operations will reduce this dependency. Over the weekend, the refinery supplied 16 million liters of gasoline, still well below its full production capacity of 57 million liters per day.
Full operations are expected by October or November, once the refinery’s residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) becomes fully operational. Starting in October, NNPC will supply Dangote with 385,000 barrels of crude per day, and gasoline will be sold exclusively to NNPC for domestic distribution. Diesel, however, will be made available to other buyers.
