Sales of crude oil in naira yet to kickoff, says refinery owners

The Crude Oil Refinery-owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) has revealed that it’s members are yet receive crude oil sales in the local currency, naira.

Echie Idoko, the Public Secretary of CORAN, made this information known during an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday.

Earlier, President Bola Tinubu, through the Federal Executive Council (FEC), approved the sale of crude oil to the Dangote refinery in naira to facilitate better accessibility and supply to the $19 billion petrochemical plant.

However, Idoko said that despite this announcement, actions must be taken to ensure the new FEC mandate is implemented.

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He said that regulatory agencies need to provide guidelines to clarify how crude oil can be accessed in naira.

“We have mentioned where we are on several fronts. As it stands right now, none of our members have started uplifting crude oil in Naira. Of course, we did mention that the pronouncement was welcoming, but there were still a few steps that had to be taken for it to become implementable. It was just a federal executive council statement. There is a need to be a regulatory framework that would enable us to access crude in Naira.

“There has to be a guideline as to how we can access. We have to know exactly what quantity is coming to us in Naira. All those details have to be worked out. We know it’s a recent pronouncement, so we will give the government the benefit of the doubt.

“We are hoping that in the coming days, there will be sitting down with us as stakeholders because you can’t shave a man’s head in his absence. We are hoping that our members should be part and parcel of the processes,” the CORAN chairman said.

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FEC had earlier approved selling crude oil to the Dangote refinery in Naira to ensure the plant’s supply and reduce pressure on the foreign exchange market.

This approval followed weeks of conflicts between Dangote and the oil and gas regulatory agencies, providing the refinery a way to obtain crude from NNPC using local currency.

The new directive allocates 450,000 barrels of crude for domestic use to be sold to Nigerian refineries in Naira, with Dangote Refinery as the pilot for this initiative.

In addition, the $19 billion refinery will sell its refined products in Naira, ensuring smooth transactions in the mid and downstream sectors.