Amid the uncertainty surrounding petroleum products price, reports show that the Federal Government’s Naira-for-crude panel will be reconvening a meeting on Monday to consider continuation of the crude sales deal with Dangote Refinery.
Sources close to the Ministries of Petroleum Resources and Finance, who preferred anonymity, revealed this on Thursday.
It would be recalled that Dangote Refinery on Wednesday, March 19 announced the suspension of its petroleum products sales in Naira.
Dangote Refinery’s decision to suspend petrol product sales in Naira signals a stalemate in discussion between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Dangote Refinery over the continuation of the Naira-for-crude sale contract.
However, official sources familiar with the matter disclosed that the scheme may continue.
It was gathered that NNPCL encountered a crude availability crisis following the fact that the state-owned firm had pre-sold large volumes to foreign creditors under its crude-backed loans.
“The scheme won’t end. The challenging point is the issue of crude availability, with NNPC claiming it has pre-sold large volumes of crude.
“The committee agreed to reconvene on Monday (next week) to review options that the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has been mandated to come up with. The committee is trying to dimension solution options,” the source stated.
Meanwhile, the committee met last week at the Ministry of Finance Headquarters in Abuja to assess developments and reaffirm commitments to the naira-for-crude policy framework.
The meeting had in attendance the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun (who joined virtually); the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr. Zacch Adedeji; the Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company; the Executive Commissioner of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (who also joined virtually); and other stakeholders.
While reacting to the development, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said its members will not hesitate to seek alternative sources of petroleum products.
“The market is making preparations for any surprises. So, if there are surprises, we’ll have alternatives to go to,” he added.
On his part, the president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, appealed for government intervention in the continuation of the Naira-for-crude policy in order to maintain the tempo of the petrol price template.
“I would like to advise the FG to look into the agreement with Dangote again to maintain the tempo of the prices of petroleum products,” he maintained.
