The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other domestic refineries have yet to start the purchase of crude oil in naira as directed by President Bola Tinubu.
It was that the $20bn plant and other local refineries in Nigeria had yet to start buying crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in naira as instructed by Tinubu last week.
The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria said letters have been written to NNPC by individual refiners requesting crude, but there has been no response yet.
The Federal Executive Council recently adopted a proposal by Tinubu to sell crude to the Dangote refinery and other upcoming refineries in naira.
FEC approved that the 450,000 barrels meant for domestic consumption be offered in naira to Nigerian refineries, using the Dangote refinery as a pilot. The exchange rate will be fixed for the duration of this transaction.
However, almost one week after the announcement, the refiners said they had not heard from the NNPC.
The Publicity Secretary of the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria, Eche Idoko, said the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority is expected to kickstart the process.
“We have not started buying crude from NNPC. Individual members have written to them (NNPC) already, and they have several requests from these refineries before them.
“Typically, we would expect our regulator, in this instance, the NMDPRA, to kick start the process by calling for a meeting of all parties to discuss the framework for such supply or have NNPC respond to the various letters to it by the refineries requesting for crude,” Idoko noted.