DANGOTE Refinery is extending its market dominance beyond Nigeria, having reportedly shipped approximately 1.7 million barrels of jet fuel across six vessels to ports in the United States this month.

Owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest individual, the refinery is already establishing a market presence beyond Nigeria’s borders. This development comes as a delay in finalising a naira-for-crude oil agreement with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is impacting the refinery’s local pricing in naira.

According to data from the ship-tracking service Kpler, as reported by Reuters, another vessel, the Hafnia Andromeda, is scheduled to arrive at the Everglades terminal on 29 March, carrying a cargo of around 348,000 barrels of jet fuel.

U.S jet fuel imports are on track to reach a two-year high in March, driven by shipments from the Dangote Refinery to North America.

The data indicates that U.S jet fuel imports so far in March have reached approximately 226,000 barrels per day (bpd), the highest figure since February 2023.

The ICIR, the U.S. appetite for products from the Dangote Refinery has emerged amidst uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the naira-for-crude oil sales agreement with the state-owned oil company, NNPCL.

On 1st October 2024, Dangote Refinery and NNPCL concluded a deal for the former to supply crude oil to the latter, with payment to be made in naira instead of U.S dollars.

This initiative was designed to bolster domestic refining capacity, reduce reliance on imported petroleum products, and stabilise the local currency by easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves, among other benefits.

The current agreement is due to expire this month, March, with the possibility of renewal. However, a renewal deal has not yet been finalised.

A meeting scheduled for Monday, March 24, to further discuss the agreement did not take place.

Following the uncertainty surrounding the renewal process, Dangote Refinery temporarilysuspended the sale of petroleum products in naira to oil marketers on March 19. This suspension is pending the resumption of naira-denominated crude oil cargo allocations from the NNPC.

Since the suspension, pump prices for petrol products have increased, as motorists and other consumers now face higher costs due to the halt in naira-based sales to marketers.

In the heat of the recent developments, the Dangote Refinery has lately been sourcing crude oil from multiple international suppliers, including Angola, Algeria, and America, to ramp up production at its 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery.

The ICIR reported that the Dangote Refinery has taken delivery of more than three million barrels of American crude since the start of the month.

The cost of loading petrol at private depots in Lagos has risen to approximately ₦900 per litre, up from less than ₦850 per litre.

Similarly, retail outlets have increased the pump price of petrol from around ₦860 to over ₦900 per litre.

“Dangote is unlikely to be a regular jet fuel supplier to the U.S., but a maintenance-related shutdown of the Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in New Jersey helped open a rare arbitrage opportunity for flows from Nigeria to the U.S., Sparta Commodities analyst James Noel-Beswick said.