Dangote Petroleum Refinery has introduced a new dollar-based pricing system for refined petroleum products, ending naira payments for petrol purchases by marketers in a major shift for Nigeria’s downstream oil sector.
Under the new pricing structure, petrol will sell at $0.779 per liter at the depot, while diesel is priced at $1.087 per liter and aviation fuel at $0.942 per liter.
The refinery also announced that all previously issued naira invoices for petrol transactions are no longer valid.
The News Chronicle reports that the change follows the refinery’s decision to align product sales with the currency used to purchase a growing share of its crude oil supplies.
Industry sources say the imbalance between buying crude in dollars and selling refined products in naira exposed the company to foreign-exchange risk, prompting the transition.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas transactions will, however, continue under the existing payment arrangement.
The latest move is expected to influence fuel pricing across Nigeria’s deregulated market, as marketers will now purchase products using dollar-based benchmarks.
Analysts also believe the development raises fresh concerns about the future of the Federal Government’s naira-for-crude initiative and its impact on domestic fuel prices.
