Dangote Refinery is receiving only about five crude oil cargoes per month under the Federal Government’s Crude-for-Naira programme, far below the 13 to 15 cargoes it expects to meet domestic fuel demand.
Chief Executive Officer David Bird, speaking in an interview with Arise Television, said the arrangement is widely misunderstood and stressed that it is not a subsidy or discount scheme.
He explained that Dangote Refinery buys Nigerian crude at full international benchmark prices and pays all associated commercial costs, with the naira-for-crude mechanism simply removing the foreign exchange leg of the transaction.
Under the current agreement, the refinery should be allocated around 13 to 15 cargoes each month, volumes he described as sufficient to cover Nigeria’s domestic fuel requirements.
In practice, however, the facility is getting only about five cargoes and often not the preferred crude grades its hardware is optimised to process, creating operational inefficiencies and reducing throughput.
ALSO READ
Bird disclosed that Dangote Refinery has been forced to source significant additional Nigerian crude on the international market, paying premiums of more than $18 per barrel for those same grades.
He warned that this represents value leaking out of Nigeria to foreign traders rather than supporting the local refining and currency-stabilisation goals of the programme.
Roughly 30 to 35 per cent of the refinery’s current crude diet comes via the Crude-for-Naira arrangement, with a further 30 to 40 per cent sourced internationally.
Bird reiterated that the Crude-for-Naira policy was designed primarily as a currency stabilisation tool to lessen pressure on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, not as a special concession for Dangote.
He urged the government to be more transparent about how it allocates crude so the programme can deliver its intended benefits for energy security and the wider economy.
