Fuel Price Hike: Oil Dealers Import Petrol As Marketers Continue Talk With Dangote Refinery

Between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20, no fewer than four vessels carrying Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, arrived at seaports in Nigeria.

These vessels delivered approximately 123.4 million litres of PMS, according to a document obtained from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Sunday.

The vessels docked at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State. This marks a significant boost to the nation’s fuel supply, especially given ongoing concerns about meeting domestic demand.

This latest delivery corroborates an earlier report by The PUNCH, which revealed that oil marketers planned to import PMS to supplement supplies from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

Marketers had expressed concerns that the refinery, located in Lekki, was producing around 10 million litres of petrol daily, far short of the 25 million litres it had originally promised. This shortfall prompted the decision to import fuel, despite the opening of the $20bn refinery.

In September, the platform reported that approximately 141 million litres of PMS were imported, following price increases in petrol from the Dangote Refinery.

These imports were made possible due to the fair market conditions created by the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the government, allowing oil marketers to bring in fuel when local production is insufficient.

The vessels that arrived between October 18 and 20 were distributed as follows: the first vessel, with 35,000 metric tonnes of PMS, berthed at the ASPM jetty at 10:13 a.m. on October 18, followed by another carrying 37,000 metric tonnes at 3:37 p.m. The third vessel, carrying 10,000 metric tonnes, arrived later that afternoon at 3:59 p.m. A fourth vessel carrying another 10,000 metric tonnes docked at the Eco Marine terminal in Calabar on Sunday morning.

When combined, the four vessels delivered a total of 92,000 metric tonnes, which, when converted using a standard rate of 1,341 litres per metric tonne, amounts to about 123.4 million litres of petrol.

In a previous interview, George Ene-Ita, spokesperson for the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, confirmed that licensed marketers are permitted to import PMS, provided that the products undergo stringent quality testing.

“The products must be subjected to our testing protocols at the ports. The products must conform to stipulated standards before we authorise them to offload to their terminals.

“Also, before the smaller vessels bring it further inland to Nigeria, our people will fly to the place to see the product and carry out some tests to ensure the right specification is upheld.

“Tests are also done at the products’ origins. And when the products come in before they are released to the market, further tests would be conducted to ensure that they meet the specifications,” he stated.

Naija News reports that despite the importation of PMS, marketers are still engaging in talks with Dangote Refinery on plans to purchase its locally refined fuel.