The Publicity Secretary of the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN), Eche Idoko, has challenged the continued issuance of licences for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit by the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
In an exclusive chat with Nairametrics, Idoko disclosed that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently has 500 million litres of PMS in stock as of Thursday, February 20.
Nairametrics reported that the Executive Director of Distribution Systems, Storage, and Retailing Infrastructure at the NMDPRA, Ogbugo Ukoha, said Nigeria currently consumes about 50 million litres of PMS daily and that local refineries are unable to meet 50% of this demand.
The senior official of the regulatory agency said it was necessary to grant importation licenses to oil marketers in order to prevent local shortages of petrol.
Idoko challenged the assertion of the NMDPRA official, saying that the Dangote refinery’s available stock alone can conveniently meet local consumption for 10 days, not to mention the various modular refineries in the country.
“I find that submission by NMDPRA rather curious. As we speak, Dangote has in stock 500 million litres of PMS in stock. That’s their production stock for 10 days, and it hasn’t been depleted. You know, I mentioned to you that in December, they were almost having a tank-top situation. So, I don’t understand why there’s a need to give licenses for importation when we have 500 million litres from only one refinery.
“That’s about 940 metric tonnes vessels available for take-up,” he said.
He noted that Dangote’s PMS is confirmed to be cheaper than even that of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPCL).
He argued that with available cheaper petrol in Nigeria and in line with the local content and backward integration policy in the oil sector, the NMDPRA has no justification to allow the continued importation of PMS at this time.
“Why won’t the marketers or whosoever is importing simply go to Dangote and pick that when we have seen empirically that the Dangote product is cheaper? Because right now, MRS that is getting from Dangote, is selling cheaper than NNPC. So, there’s nothing to justify importation of petroleum products as per the provisions of the PIA and the requirements for backward integration.”
