Dangote Petroleum Refinery has resumed selling Premium Motor Spirit in naira, easing a week of turmoil in Nigeria’s downstream market triggered by its brief switch to dollar-denominated pricing.

The refinery fixed its new ex-depot gantry price at N1,215 per litre, an increase of N140, or 13.02%, from the N1,075 charged before the dollar-pricing episode began. In a statement, the refinery said the naira-denominated pricing was aimed at giving marketers and consumers some relief, and it has resumed accepting orders for coastal loading under the new terms.

During the dollar-pricing period, diesel had been priced at $1.087 per litre, aviation fuel at $0.942 per litre, and coastally delivered petrol at $1,044.62 per metric tonne, with the refinery voiding all previously issued naira-denominated invoices for gantry and coastal transactions.

The episode coincided with a sharp jump in Nigeria’s petrol imports, which more than tripled to 18.1 million litres a day in June from 5.6 million litres in May, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority. Industry data show the refinery has increasingly prioritised exports, shipping 466,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel in June alone and overtaking the United States as Europe’s largest external jet fuel supplier, with cargoes also going to Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo. Because domestic naira sales limit the dollars available to buy imported crude feedstock, the refinery has leaned more heavily on export markets, a dynamic that has pushed Nigeria to import more finished petrol even as its biggest refinery ramps up output.

Source: orientalnewsng.com