To address challenges in accessing foreign currency, the government in July said it would sell crude priced in naira to local refineries for an initial six months starting in October.

"We need 650 000 barrels per day (bpd), (state oil firm NNPC Ltd) agreed to give a minimum of 385 000 bpd but they are not even delivering that," said Edwin Devakumar, Head of the Dangote refinery.

The refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos aims to compete with European refiners when operating at full capacity but it has struggled to secure sufficient crude supplies to run optimally.

While Devakumar declined to give specific figures, he described deliveries from NNPC under the scheme as "peanuts".

Still, Dangote is the only one of 8 operational refineries in Nigeria to have benefited from the naira-denominated crude sale arrangement, said Mathins Obaze, an acting executive director of the Crude Oil Refinery-owners Association of Nigeria, a trade group of refiners.

--Reuters--