- Dangote Refinery received only five crude cargoes monthly, far below the 13–15 agreed under the crude-for-naira policy
- The shortfall forced the refinery to buy Nigerian crude from international markets at higher costs, causing revenue leakage
- Despite challenges, the refinery operated at full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day while global oil tensions increased operational costs
The Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Refinery, David Bird, has revealed that the facility is receiving far below its agreed crude oil allocation under the Federal Government’s crude-for-naira arrangement.
Speaking in an interview on ARISE News on Wednesday, Bird said the refinery currently receives only about five cargoes of crude each month, significantly lower than the 13 to 15 cargoes stipulated under existing agreements.
“What we see under that agreement, we should be getting about 13 to 15 cargoes a month. And that’s what we could process to meet the domestic fuel requirements of Nigeria. Currently, we’re only getting five. So, that’s an underperformance against that pre-agreed volume contract,” he stated.
The shortfall, according to Bird, has forced the refinery to procure preferred Nigerian crude grades from the international market at higher costs. He warned that this situation is causing significant financial leakage to the global trading community.
“And that value between the purchase price and the premium that we’re now seeing is money that Nigeria is leaking to the international trading community,” Bird said.
He clarified that the crude-for-naira policy was intended to stabilise the country’s foreign exchange market rather than confer financial benefits to the refinery. The company still purchases crude at international benchmark prices, he noted.
“Just to start on the crude for Naira, crude for Naira is not there to benefit Dangote Refinery. That is a fundamental misunderstanding. The crude-for-naira programme is to provide resilience to foreign exchange. It is the benefit of the country to process domestic crude in the domestic currency,” Bird explained.
Despite these challenges, the refinery is operating at its full installed capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, supplying both domestic and regional markets. However, Bird highlighted that global oil market disruptions, including Middle East tensions, have driven up operational costs across the value chain, including freight, insurance, and logistics.
He called for improved crude allocation and long-term strategic planning, including the creation of national reserves, to strengthen Nigeria’s oil supply chain and reduce exposure to international market volatility.