The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has resumed the sale of premium motor spirit (PMS) in naira, abandoning a week-old dollar-denominated pricing policy that rattled Nigeria’s downstream petroleum market, while raising its wholesale petrol price by ₦140 a litre.
The decision marks a reversal of the refinery’s controversial move on 15 July to suspend petrol loading and switch domestic sales to US dollars, a policy that disrupted fuel supplies, drove up depot prices and heightened concerns over pressure on the naira.
In a notice issued on Wednesday by its commercial department, the 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery informed marketers that petrol sales had reverted to naira with immediate effect, although at significantly higher prices.
The revised pricing schedule showed that the ex-depot gantry price had risen from ₦1,075 per litre to ₦1,215 per litre — an increase of ₦140, or just over 13%. The coastal loading price also increased from ₦1,441,575 to ₦1,602,495 per metric tonne.
The notice, titled PMS Price Change Communication, stated: “Please be advised that all unloaded gantry volumes will be subject to repricing at the new price, which is effective 22nd July 2026.
“Kindly proceed with placing your order.”
The refinery added that marketers seeking further clarification should contact its commercial team.
The move was independently confirmed by industry pricing platform Petroleumprice.ng, whose chief executive, Jeremiah Olatide, said customers had already been informed that gantry operations had resumed under the revised naira pricing structure.
“Yes, the refinery has returned to pricing its product in naira,” Olatide said.
The return to local-currency transactions follows mounting pressure from petroleum marketers, who warned that the brief shift to dollar pricing would deepen foreign exchange demand, weaken the naira and ultimately raise pump prices across the country.
During the suspension, independent marketers stopped lifting petrol from the refinery, arguing that sourcing foreign exchange for domestic fuel purchases was commercially unsustainable.
The disruption tightened supplies, forcing marketers to buy from private depots, where ex-depot prices climbed from about ₦1,075 per litre to as much as ₦1,275 within days.
Industry estimates suggested that, with Nigeria consuming roughly 50m litres of petrol daily, marketers would have required around $40m every day — or more than $14bn annually — to sustain purchases under a dollar-denominated system.
The refinery had defended the temporary policy, arguing that it was no longer receiving sufficient crude oil under the federal government’s naira-for-crude arrangement and had been compelled to source additional feedstock on international markets using dollars.
Under the suspended pricing structure, petrol was sold at $0.779 per litre, automotive gas oil (diesel) at $1.087 per litre and Jet A1 aviation fuel at $0.942 per litre.
A senior regulatory official had maintained that the refinery had not breached the Petroleum Industry Act by invoicing products in foreign currency, arguing that the company was attempting to recover costs incurred from dollar-denominated crude purchases.
Following complaints from marketers and wider concerns about the implications for fuel supply and foreign exchange stability, the federal government opened discussions with the Dangote Group over the future of the naira-for-crude initiative.
Those negotiations are understood to be continuing, although the refinery has now suspended dollar sales and reinstated naira transactions for domestic customers.
Industry operators said the policy reversal should restore normal product evacuation and ease distribution bottlenecks that emerged during the week-long disruption. However, they warned that the higher wholesale price is likely to feed through to retail fuel prices unless international crude prices retreat or competition among suppliers intensifies.
The refinery’s revised ex-depot price of ₦1,215 per litre nevertheless remains below the roughly ₦1,275 per litre currently being offered by fuel importers.
Meanwhile, retail petrol prices climbed to around ₦1,300 per litre in Lagos and several other parts of the country on Wednesday as global oil prices hovered near $94 a barrel amid renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
