The decision would decrease the influence of the world’s largest trading firms, which have been negotiating for months to provide the refinery with money and crude oil in exchange for product exports.

The massive 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery is poised to reshape global oil and fuel flows, and the trading industry is eagerly watching how it will operate. BP, Trafigura, and Vitol, among others, have met with Dangote in Lagos and London in recent weeks to provide loans for the refinery’s estimated $3 billion in working capital required to purchase big amounts of petroleum, according to trading sources.

The plant refined around 8 million barrels of oil between January and February and will take months to reach full capacity. Vitol has already pre-paid for some product shipments to assist the refinery in purchasing crude, while Trafigura has swapped some crude oil for future fuel cargoes, according to sources. Vitol and Trafigura, both located in Geneva, declined to comment.