Market News

BY  Chinedu Okafor

The amount of Premium Motor Spirits (Petrol) imported into Nigeria surged in October despite the recent boom in the country’s domestic oil production.

A report by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Company (OPEC), as seen on the Punch, revealed that Nigeria imported a higher volume of petrol in October compared to September, despite the country’s oil refining capacity.

Nigeria currently boasts the largest single train oil refinery in the world, which has been fully operational for months.

Additionally, the refinery started production of petrol in September, which was projected to drastically reduce the amount of petrol being imported from external markets.

Nonetheless, given some complications within the oil sector in Nigeria, the country still imported a significant volume of petrol in October, which in an ironic twist was higher than the volume the month prior.

This is hardly surprising, given the fact that a report in October showed that despite the fully operational largest single train refinery, marketers were still heavily reliant on imported petrol.

At the time, at least four vessels carrying petroleum products were recorded at the borders of the West African country,

The report by OPEC also noted that the volume of petrol imported in October 2024, most of which came from Europe, was 60% less than the amount imported in the same period last year.

“Gasoline exports to West Africa strengthened and compensated for a drop in flows to the US. Exports to Nigeria were reported to have surged compared to the level registered in September despite still remaining 60 per cent lower, year-on-year,” OPEC revealed.

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This trend of importing petrol into the West African country has however divulged into a debacle.

NPPC sends 300 trucks to lift petrol from Dangote Refinery, Lagos clears traffic [X:@nnpclimited]

Nigeria’s back and forth on fuel importation

On Monday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited announced that it had halted the importation petrol.

NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, revealed this at the 42nd Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).

“Today, NNPC does not import any product, we are taking only from domestic refineries,” he said.

“We are very proud part-owners of Dangote refinery, no doubt about it. We saw an opportunity that there is a clear market for at least 300,000 barrels of our production; we know that as time moves on, people will start struggling to find markets for their production," he added.

However, a recent development brought to light the NNPC’s intention to continue with the importation of petrol.

Barely a week later, the NNPCL clarified that it does not intend to stop the importation of fuel, despite reports suggesting that the company had ended fuel importation due to the Dangote refinery capacity.

On Friday, the NNPCL revealed that the information circulating that the importation of fuel had ended is false and according to the group's Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Mr Femi Soneye, the false narrative ascribed to the NNPC MD was unfortunate.

The report said that though Kyari’s statement was correctly quoted in the report, the interpretation contained factually inaccurate assertions and misrepresentations.

“The GCEO’s statement, ‘Today, NNPC does not import any product; we are only taking from domestic refineries’, should not be construed to imply that NNPC Ltd. is obligated to be the sole off-taker of any refinery or that we will no longer import fuel,” Mr Femi Soneye, stated.

“While NNPC prioritizes sourcing products from domestic refineries, this is contingent upon economic viability. If local supply is cost-effective, it will be preferred, but the same principle applies to other marketers, who will also evaluate total costs when deciding whether to buy locally or import,” he added.