Dangote Refinery hikes petrol price by ₦140 as naira sales resume

Petrol prices have climbed across Nigeria after the Dangote Petroleum Refinery ended its brief switch to dollar-denominated sales, returning to naira transactions with a sharply higher ex-depot rate.

The refinery announced the move in a notice from its commercial department on Wednesday, saying the new prices took effect immediately on 22 July 2026.

Under the revised pricing, the gantry price of petrol rose from ₦1,075 to ₦1,215 per litre , an increase of ₦140, or 13.02 percent. Coastal loading rates moved from ₦1,441,575 per metric tonne to ₦1,602,495.

“Please be advised that all unloaded gantry volumes will be subject to repricing at the new price, which is effective 22nd July 2026,” the notice read. “Kindly proceed with placing your order.”

The reversal comes barely a week after the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery suspended truck loading on 15 July and shifted to dollar pricing. That decision roiled the downstream market, forcing marketers to turn to private depots, where ex-depot prices jumped from around ₦1,075 to roughly ₦1,275 per litre as supply tightened.

Jeremiah Olatide, CEO of petroleum pricing platform Petroleumprice.ng, confirmed the refinery had returned to naira pricing.

Independent marketers had halted purchases, arguing that sourcing dollars to pay for supplies was becoming untenable. Industry figures warned that prolonged dollar sales would pile pressure on foreign exchange demand, weaken the naira, and push pump prices even higher. Based on estimated daily consumption of about 50 million litres, marketers would have required roughly $40 million every day,  more than $14 billion a year, to sustain purchases.

The refinery defended its temporary dollar regime, explaining that it was no longer receiving sufficient crude under the federal government’s naira-for-crude initiative and had been forced to buy additional barrels on the international market with dollars.

A senior regulatory official put the situation plainly: “The naira-for-crude deal is not to Dangote’s advantage right now because the company is sourcing crude in dollars. He has absorbed a lot. But maybe he has got to a breaking point. So he has to do stuff to recover costs. And that’s why he wants to share that burden with off-takers.”

Following pushback from petroleum marketers and concerns over fuel supply and forex demand, the federal government stepped in and began discussions with the Dangote Group over the future of the crude-supply arrangement.

Industry operators say the new ex-depot price of ₦1,215 is set to trigger further increases at depots and pumps unless global crude prices soften. Brent crude hovered around $94 a barrel on Wednesday amid renewed tensions in the Middle East. In Lagos and several other locations, petrol sold for about ₦1,300 per litre.

In a separate but related move, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited raised pump prices at its retail outlets for the second time in under 48 hours. An NNPCL station survey showed the price climbed from ₦1,270 per litre on Tuesday to ₦1,335 on Wednesday, a ₦65 increase. The new rate was already in effect at filling stations in Abuja, including outlets in Wuse Zone 6, Zone 4 and other parts of the Federal Capital Territory.