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By Lawrence Agbo
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the ongoing conflict in the Middle East may not cripple Nigeria’s fuel supply, citing the country’s growing domestic refining capacity.
Edun spoke amid rising fuel prices triggered by global crude oil market volatility linked to the escalating crisis in the Middle East, which has pushed up transportation costs in Nigeria.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, the minister said the current pump prices reflect market realities under the deregulated petroleum sector.
According to him, the pricing of petroleum products is now driven by market forces rather than government controls.
“The market price for petroleum products is what has been instilled by Mr President — a mechanism that was missing for so long. It is important to understand that this is not a one-way street,” Edun said.
He noted that price movements in the sector reflect natural market dynamics, pointing out that prices had recently dropped after earlier increases.
“We have seen Dangote reduce prices from around N1,200 to just over N1,000 or N1,050; those are the natural dynamics of the market,” he added.
Edun also credited the resilience of Nigeria’s economy to private sector investments in refining, particularly the Dangote Refinery, which he said has strengthened the country’s capacity to process crude oil locally.
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“The resilience that the Nigerian economy has is coming largely from the fact that we do have that investment by the private sector, by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, in refining, and we need to support our refiners just as others are supporting them to keep petroleum products flowing,” he said.
“I think we should be thankful at this time for the capacity we have in Nigeria to refine crude into petrochemicals and petroleum products.”
The 650,000-barrels-per-day Dangote Refinery — Africa’s largest — began producing petrol in 2024, after initially commencing production of diesel and aviation fuel earlier that year.
In recent weeks, the refinery adjusted petrol prices several times, citing fluctuations in global crude oil prices amid the Middle East tensions.
However, the company later announced a reduction in prices following a decline in international crude oil prices, noting that crude supplied to the refinery — including under the naira-for-crude arrangement — is still priced based on global benchmarks with an added premium.
“As responsible corporate citizens operating in a high-governance code and ethical environment, we believe it is imperative to reduce the price of our products as a reflection of the decline in global crude oil prices,” it explained after later reducing the cost of the commodity.
“All our crudes are priced on the global benchmark price plus a $3 to $6 additional premium. Our forex is paid at the prevailing market rate of the day, with no subsidy in both crude and forex.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the crude supplied under the Naira-for-Crude arrangement is priced according to the global benchmark price plus a premium which is then converted to naira using the prevailing market exchange rate.”
