
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy, Wale Edun, has commenced a high-level stakeholders meeting to implement President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited to sell crude oil to local refineries in Naira.
The meeting attended by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr Jack Adedeji, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Lydia Jafia, took place on Monday at the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja.
According to a post on the ministry’s official X (formerly Twitter) page, the initiative is aimed at strengthening the domestic economy and supporting the sustainable operation of local refineries, including the Dangote Refinery.
The post read, “On Monday, the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy, Wale Edun, led an important meeting aimed at implementing President Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited to sell crude oil to local refineries in Naira.
“This initiative aims to strengthen the domestic economy and support the sustainable operations of local refineries, including the Dangote Refinery.”
The meeting brought together key stakeholders including the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr. Jack Adedeji, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Lydia Jafia and other notable participants.”
During the extensive deliberations, the Finance Minister expressed strong confidence in the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to achieve the objectives of the Directive.
“The in-depth discussions highlighted the long-term challenges in the petroleum sector, but the Minister expressed strong confidence in the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to achieve the objectives of the Directive.”
Recall that on July 29, President Bola Tinubu directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell crude oil to the Dangote Refinery and other refineries to be built in Naira.
The Federal Executive Council has approved that 450,000 barrels of oil earmarked for domestic consumption will be made available to Nigerian refineries in Naira, using the Dangote Refinery as a pilot project.
The move is to ensure the stability of the pump price of refined fuel and the dollar-naira exchange rate.
The findings show that the Dangote refinery currently needs 15 cargos of crude oil worth $13.5 billion per annum. The NNPC has promised to supply four cargos.
The Dangote refinery has been embroiled in a crude oil supply crisis with international oil companies operating in Nigeria. Later, it also had some confrontation with the country’s midstream/downstream regulator.
Additional efforts by our correspondent to get details about the meeting were unsuccessful as Finance Ministry Press Director Mohammed Manga did not answer calls made to his phone.
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