New Telegraph

Fuel Importation Hits 6-month High At 35% Increase In September

  • …vessels berth product worth N140bn
  • 87 illegal refineries, connections discovered in a week –NNPC Ltd

Importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) has risen by 35.5 per cent in one month. Investigations revealed that importers had flooded Nigerian port jetties with 165 million tonnes (165,050 tonnes) of Premium Motor Spirit valued at N140 billion as against 106,500 tonnes witnessed in August 2024, leading to a sudden increase when compared to previous months.

Apart from March imports of 159,140 tonnes, the new delivery is the largest in the last six months. At Lagos Port jetty, the shipping data revealed that Sabaek arrived with 60,000 tonnes, while Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT), Phase II will take delivery of 85,050 tonnes from six vessels.

It noted that Matrix S. Ilu would offload 15,000 tonnes; Virgo I,15,000 tonnes; Stellar, 10,050 tonnes; Maestro, 10,000 tonnes; Shamal, 20,000 tonnes and Delphinus, 15,000 tonnes, adding that Mycroft, 20,000 tonnes will offload its consignments at Calabar Port.

Until recently when Dangote Refinery began its gel. supply, Nigeria relied solely on Importation of the product to meet its needs. The arrangement, however, ran into crisis a few weeks back as the suppliers ceased transactions over indebtedness by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).

A report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday also revealed that 20.30 billion litres of PMS was imported in 2023. The NBS stated this in its Petroleum Products Distribution Statistics for 2023 released in Abuja on Tuesday.

The report said the figure of 20.30 billion litres of PMS reported in 2023 amounted to a decrease of 13.77 per cent compared to the 23.54 billion litres recorded in 2022. For Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) also known as diesel, the report said that 4.94 billion litres were imported in 2023.

This indicated a 23. 66 per cent increase compared to the 4.00 billion litres recorded in 2022. The report noted that PMS truck out stood at 20.22 billion litres in 2023, indicating a 16.96 per cent decrease when compared to 24.35 billion litres recorded in 2022.

It said 69.71 million litres of Household Kerosene (HHK) were locally produced in 2023 compared to 44.68 million litres in 2022. “The figure indicates a growth rate of 56.02 per cent over the period.”

For diesel, the report showed that 109.39 million litres were locally produced in 2023, indicating an increase of 6.76 per cent compared to the 102.47 million litres recorded in 2022.

Recall that the NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, had explained that the current distribution of petrol from Dangote refinery was priced in dollars as crude oil was supplied to the firm before the Naira agreement was reached.

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