The largest oil refinery in Africa, the Dangote Refinery, is allegedly considering importing more crude oil as talks with the Nigerian government over the Naira-for-Crude deal continue.
The Nigerian government is currently negotiating a Naira-for-Crude contract in an effort to strengthen the local currency and lessen its reliance on foreign currencies for oil transactions.
The largest oil refinery in Africa, the $19 billion Dangote Refinery, has been a key component of Nigeria’s attempts to become petroleum self-sufficient.
The refinery has greatly decreased the country’s dependency on imported fuel since it began operations.
The refinery is currently looking into ways to import crude oil to reach its output goals, though, as the facility is almost at capacity.
Since the beginning of the month, the Dangote refinery has received over three million barrels of U.S. crude, according to statistics from Bloomberg.
In recent weeks, the refinery has also made acquisitions closer to home, importing a cargo of Algeria’s Saharan Blend and a shipment of Angola’s Pazflor grade from Glencore Plc.
According to experts at Energy Aspects Ltd, crude deliveries to the Dangote refinery have increased from an estimated 380,000 barrels per day in January and February to an average of 450,000 barrels per day during the last two weeks.
Randy Hurburun, a senior refinery analyst at the consultancy, stated, “Our satellite monitoring shows a recent draw in crude stocks at the refinery, indicating runs are likely on the rise.”
In anticipation of the initial agreement’s expiration on March 31, 2025, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said on Monday that it has begun new talks with the Dangote Petroleum Refinery regarding renewing the naira-for-crude arrangement.
The NNPC made this announcement in response to allegations that the government-owned oil company had halted the naira-for-crude agreement until 2030 because it had forward-sold all of its crude oil.
On October 1, 2024, the government started selling crude oil to local refineries in naira to increase supplies, save the nation millions of dollars on petroleum product imports, and eventually lower the pump prices of refined products.
