by MyEngineers
Dangote Petroleum Refinery has stopped selling its refined products in naira, moving instead to a full dollar based pricing structure for petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
In a notice sent to marketers and customers, the refinery announced that petrol, known locally as Premium Motor Spirit, now sells at an ex depot price of $0.779 per litre. Diesel, or Automotive Gas Oil, goes for $1.087 per litre, while Aviation Turbine Kerosene, used to fuel airplanes, will now cost $0.942 per litre. For coastal deliveries, petrol will be priced at $1,044.62 per metric tonne.
The refinery made it clear that any naira denominated Proforma Invoices or Deal Recaps issued before the switch are no longer valid and should not be paid for.
According to a statement from the refinery’s Group Commercial Operations unit, seen by the Punch, “Following our email on the 9th of July, 2026, regarding the transition from Naira to United States Dollars, please note that all issued Naira Coastal and Gantry PFIs/Deal Recaps are now invalid, and no payments should be made against them.
The applicable USD prices for each product, effective today, July 13, 2026, are provided below.”
The company added that Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly called cooking gas, is not affected by this change and will continue to trade under the existing payment terms.
This latest development effectively ends the refinery’s participation in naira based sales of refined products, a system that had been in place since the Federal Government rolled out its naira for crude arrangement in October 2024.
Industry watchers say the decision did not come out of nowhere. For months, there had been growing concern within the refinery over the mismatch between how it pays for crude and how it earns from selling refined products.
A large chunk of the crude oil it receives from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is billed in dollars, yet much of what it sold locally was still priced in naira. That gap left the refinery exposed to currency fluctuations, something it appears no longer willing to absorb.
This is not the first time the issue has come up. As far back as March last year, Dangote Refinery had hinted that it might restrict fuel supply to the domestic market if problems with the naira for crude deal were not sorted out. At that point, sources close to the matter suggested the refinery preferred to keep selling to Nigerians, but wanted to do so in dollars rather than naira.
For marketers who buy fuel directly from the refinery, the new pricing model means they will now have to work with dollar benchmarks going forward.
What this means for the average Nigerian at the pump is less straightforward, since retail prices still depend on several other factors, including the exchange rate, transport costs, taxes and the margins marketers choose to add.
The move has also reignited questions about how sustainable the naira for crude policy really is. That policy was introduced to encourage local refining, ease pressure on foreign exchange demand and help stabilise fuel prices within the country.
With one of its biggest beneficiaries now stepping away from naira transactions, some analysts believe the arrangement may need a rethink if it is to survive in its current form.