The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced the suspension of petrol sales in naira, a development that has unsettled fuel marketers and raised fears of fresh pressure on pump prices and the foreign exchange market.
In an email sent to customers at 6:42 p.m. on Friday, the refinery said the decision would take effect from Sunday, September 28, 2025, citing the depletion of its crude-for-naira allocation.
The notice, signed by the Group Commercial Operations of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and titled “Suspension of DPRP PMS Naira Sales – Effective 28th September 2025”, directed customers with pending naira transactions to request refunds.
“We have been selling petroleum products in excess of our Naira-Crude allocations and, consequently, we are unable to sustain PMS sales in Naira going forward,” the statement read. “All customers with PMS transactions in Naira who would like a refund of their current payments should formally request the processing of their refund.”
This marks the second time the refinery has halted local currency sales. In March 2025, it briefly suspended naira transactions, also citing inadequate crude-for-naira allocations, a move that stoked concerns about the dollarisation of petrol sales and pushed pump prices close to ₦1,000 per litre.
The latest suspension coincides with escalating tensions between the refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). On Friday, the union ordered its members across key oil and gas companies—including TotalEnergies, Renaissance, Chevron, Shell Nigeria Gas, Oando, and Seplat—to halt crude oil and gas supply to the facility.
In a memo signed by its General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, PENGASSAN directed branch chairmen to “ensure that valves are shut and gas supply to the refinery is cut off effective immediately.”
The union’s directive followed last Thursday’s disengagement of about 800 workers by Dangote Refinery, which management defended as part of an ongoing reorganisation to safeguard the facility against sabotage and operational risks.
With the dual blow of suspended naira sales and the looming crude supply shutdown, industry stakeholders fear that the refinery’s output—and by extension, national fuel supply—could be severely disrupted in the coming days.
