Dangote officials, refiners react over plan for marketers to import million litres of petrol

• Major oil marketers are facing opposition from domestic crude oil refiners and Dangote Petroleum Refinery
• Some imported fuels, according to oil refiners, are inferior to those produced by the Dangote plant
• The national refiners' organisation representative criticized marketers for continuing to import fuel

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over 3-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

Officials at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and domestic crude oil refiners have taken a stand against major oil marketers in Nigeria starting to import Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol.

Some imported fuels were allegedly inferior to those produced by the Dangote refinery, according to oil refiners. Photo Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor
Source: Getty Images

Oil refiners alleged that some imported fuels were inferior to those made by the Dangote refinery and officials of the $20 billion plant located in Lekki reaffirmed this claim.

This follows report on Wednesday that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, three major oil marketers were anticipating vessels carrying imported petrol this week.

Dealers reported that after the Federal Government fully deregulated the downstream oil business, around 141 million litres of PMS were being transported to Nigeria via oil boats.

They added that PMS imports had been made possible by the alleged recent increase in the pump prices of gasoline produced by the Dangote refinery and issued by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Monday.

How refiners react

In response, representatives of the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria and the Dangote refinery confronted the marketers on Thursday.

They emphasised that the imported fuels were of poor quality whilst adding that the fact that the situation would raise demand for US dollars.

A source at the Dangote refinery told The Punch,

“These people (marketers) are importing dirty fuels that are toxic. They are importing substandard fuels and if allowed they will not stop importing such. We have more than enough, but these guys don’t want it. They want the game to continue, but the game will not continue.”

Nigerians should be concerned about the flow of inferior petroleum products into their nation, according to another official of the refinery.

“You have to be concerned about the quality of the products they import. These are toxic fuels when you consider their blending process. All this is just to maximise profit,” the official stated.

Their positions were corroborated by the Publicity Secretary of CORAN, Eche Idoko, who alleged that some of the substandard fuels were blended in Malta or Togo.

The representative for the national refiners' association denounced marketers' ongoing fuel imports amid the Dangote refinery's opening.

He claimed that rather than importing inferior fuel into the nation, the current focus should be on how to export refined goods.

Idoko, however, noted that the foreign exchange problem prevented some merchants from attempting to import petroleum goods after subsidies were removed.

Dangote refinery misses petrol supply target

Legit.ng reported that people with knowledge of the situation have said that Dangote Refinery is not meeting its September petrol delivery target of 25 million litres per day to the country.

Premium Times reported that that the refinery was only able to supply 10,297,766 (about 10.3 million litres) using its gantry loading system in three days, as opposed to the anticipated delivery of 75 million litres.

With that amount, the refinery showed a three-day supply deficit of about 65 million litres, which analysts say poses a risk to the country's energy security.

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Source: Legit.ng