Marketers Resume Petrol Importation as Dangote Refinery Fails to Meet Target

Petroleum marketers have resumed importing petrol to supplement the country’s fuel supply, following the inability of the Dangote Refinery to meet demand.

Four vessels carrying 123.4 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) arrived at Nigerian seaports between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20.

TrackNews Media reported earlier that the failure of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery to meet its promised production target raised concerns about fuel scarcity.

Oil dealers had earlier disclosed that the refinery was producing only 10 million litres of petrol daily, far below its initial promise of 25 million litres.

It is understood that the federal government’s full deregulation of the downstream oil sector has created room for PMS imports. Dealers took advantage of the fair market price to import about 141 million litres of PMS in September.

According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority, the four vessels berthed at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State.

35,000 metric tonnes of PMS arrived at Apapa port on Friday, October 18; 37,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at Apapa port on Friday, October 18; 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at Apapa port on Friday, October 18 and 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at Calabar port on Sunday, October 20, findings by Punch Newspaper revealed.

Using the conversion rate of 1,341 litres to one metric tonne, the total importation stands at approximately 123.4 million litres of petrol.