The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced the suspension of petrol sales in naira, a decision that has unsettled fuel marketers and raised fears of fresh pressure on pump prices and the foreign exchange market.
In an email circulated to customers at 6:42 p.m. on Friday, the refinery confirmed that the suspension will take effect from Sunday, September 28, 2025, citing the exhaustion of its crude-for-naira allocation as the reason.
The notice, issued by the Group Commercial Operations of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and titled “Suspension of DPRP PMS Naira Sales – Effective 28th September 2025”, instructed customers with ongoing naira-based transactions to formally request refunds.
It read:
“Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals has been selling petroleum products in excess of our Naira-Crude allocations and, consequently, we are unable to sustain PMS sales in Naira going forward.
Kindly note that this suspension of Naira sales for PMS will be effective from Sunday, 28th of September, 2025. We will provide further updates regarding the resumption of supply once the situation has been resolved.”
The announcement comes amid a bitter labour dispute at the refinery, where unions accuse management of sacking more than 800 Nigerian workers in what they describe as “anti-labour practices.” Union leaders under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have threatened solidarity actions if the matter is not resolved.
This is not the first time the refinery has halted local currency transactions. In March 2025, Dangote briefly suspended naira-based sales, insisting that crude-for-naira allocations were insufficient to meet domestic demand. That move sparked fears of the dollarisation of fuel sales, pushing pump prices close to ₦1,000 per litre.
Energy analyst and CEO of Petroleumprice.ng, Jeremiah Olatide, warned that petrol prices could again climb above ₦900 per litre if sales shift predominantly to dollars. He noted that Dangote Refinery’s operations in recent months had played a key role in keeping prices from spiraling further.
With Nigeria’s largest refinery now facing dual crises—a suspension of naira sales and escalating labour unrest—stakeholders caution that the situation could derail government efforts to stabilise the downstream sector under ongoing energy reforms.
