Six vessels carrying about 1.7 million barrels of jet fuel from the Nigeria’s Dangote refinery have arrived at U.S. ports this month, Reuters has reported and confirmed by the data from ship-tracking service company Kpler .

It was also reported that another vessel, Hafnia Andromeda, is set to arrive at the Everglades terminal on March 29 with a load of about 348,000 barrels of jet fuel and the total U.S. jet fuel imports so far in March stood at around 226,000 bpd, the most since February 2023, the data has showed.

Based on the current reality, U.S. jet fuel imports are set to hit a two-year high in March as Nigeria’s Dangote refinery pushes barrels to North America and this is expected to lower prices of the aviation fuel in the peak summer travel season, trade analysts and storage brokers said according to Reuters.

The good news of the shipments by the 650,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Dangote refinery to the west is coming with the company’s announcement of temporary suspension of sales of petroleum products in naira .

According to the Dangote in a recent post on its X social media handle, the company stated that “We wish to inform you that, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has temporarily halted the sale of petroleum products in Naira. This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in U.S. dollars.

“To date, our sales of petroleum products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude we have received. As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency.

“Our attention has also been drawn to reports on the internet claiming that we are stopping loading due to an incident of ticketing fraud. This is malicious falsehood. Our systems are robust and we have had no fraud issues.

“We remain committed to serving the Nigerian market efficiently and sustainably. As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira.”

The above media statement from Dangote is line with the previous disclosure made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited NNPCL on the expiration of sale of crude oil to Dangote in Naira.

“To clarify, the contract for the sale of crude oil in Naira was structured as a six-month agreement, subject to availability, and expires at the end of March 2025. Discussions are currently ongoing towards emplacing a new contract.

“Under this arrangement, NNPC Ltd. has made over 48 million barrels of crude oil available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024. In aggregate, NNPC Ltd. has made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the Refinery since its commencement of operations in 2023.

“NNPC Limited remains committed to supplying crude oil for local refining based on mutually agreed terms and conditions,” NNPC Clarified.