Domestic crude oil refiners and Dangote Petroleum Refinery officials have kicked against the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by major oil marketers in Nigeria.
The refiners said some of the imported fuels are of lower quality than what is produced at the Dangote refinery. This was corroborated by officials of the $20bn refinery in Lekki.
Yesterday, PUNCH reported exclusively that three major oil marketers will receive vessels of imported petrol this week if nothing goes wrong.
Dealers said 141 million liters of PMS are coming into the country on oil vessels following the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the Federal Government.
They added that the recent increase in petrol pump price—produced by Dangote refinery and distributed by Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited—has created an opportunity for PMS importation.
In response yesterday, officials of Dangote refinery and Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria faulted the marketers, saying beyond increasing demand for US dollars, the imported fuels are of lower quality.
“These are bad, low quality fuels,” a Dangote refinery source told one of our correspondents in confidence.
“They are bringing in substandard products and if nothing is done, they won’t stop. We have enough fuel but they want to maintain status quo. But things are changing.”
Another refinery official said Nigerians should be concerned about the quality of the imports.
“We should be worried about these imports. The blending of these fuels is questionable and they are toxic. It’s all about profit maximization,” he added.
CORAN Publicity Secretary, Eche Idoko also corroborated this, saying some of the low quality fuels were blended in Malta or Togo.
He called for backward integration and said some marketers fear Dangote will dominate the market.
“Marketers are afraid Dangote will be a monopoly but that fear has been addressed with Dangote joining our association. With the Petroleum Industry Act in place and all regulatory bodies in place, it’s hard for Dangote to monopolize the market.”
“But the marketers used to the old way are worried. They are not sure of the new system and are struggling to adjust.
“I can tell you this new system will be better than the old way of importing petroleum products especially when we were getting substandard fuels blended abroad and imported into Nigeria,” Idoko said.
CORAN spokesperson faulted the continued importation of fuel despite Dangote refinery is operational, saying attention should now shift to exporting refined products not importing low quality fuel.
He also said some marketers are having issues importing petroleum products after the removal of subsidy due to foreign exchange challenges.
“Those importing fuel will still have issues because after importing, they will have to go to CBN to get ‘Form M’ to access dollars. This doesn’t solve the problem, you still need to buy dollars and that puts pressure on the naira. So the naira will continue to depreciate.
“Strength of a currency is tied to the demand for it by other currencies. If other currencies like dollars or francs are being exchanged for naira to buy refined Nigerian products, the naira will appreciate,” Idoko said.
In response to concerns about the quality of imported fuels, NMDPR said all imported PMS will be tested three times before they get into the market.
The authority’s spokesperson, George Ene-Ita said marketers with approved import licenses can bring in PMS but the product must go through the testing.
“The product will be tested at the ports. They must meet our standard before we approve them to marketers’ terminals.”
“Before the smaller vessels take the product inland, our team will inspect and test the product to ensure it meets the specifications.
“Tests are also done at the point of origin and when the product arrives, we will do further checks before we release to the market,” Ene-Ita said.
Follow Us
