It is utterly befuddling that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other marketers in the downstream oil sector have resumed fuel imports. According to the latest importation data, they reportedly imported about 632 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) in January, 2025 despite the domestic production of these commodities. They have been importing the products through the Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar ports.
The NNPCL and other marketers were said to have brought in over 458 million litres of petrol and 174 million litres of diesel, making a total of 632 million of the two products, last month alone. The fresh imports, according to some oil dealers, were prompted by the purported need to bridge domestic fuel shortages.
We believe the move smacks of putting one foot forward and two feet backwards, if fuel imports have so soon become ineluctable, in spite of the streak of breakthroughs, however tiddly, that we have recorded in the downstream sector in the last few months.
Indeed, the reason adduced for resorting to fuel imports—domestic fuel shortages— is simply risible. How can we have domestic shortfalls when it is already public knowledge that the Ibeji-Lekki-based $20billion Dangote Refinery and Petrolchemicals can conveniently meet the domestic refined petroleum products demands and enough surplus for exports?
Besides, is resorting to fuel imports at this time not ludicrous with all the rapturous exhilaration that trailed the resuscitation of the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries? Indeed, oil and gas experts regard the turn of events in the industry as baffling and shocking, considering the widely publicised operational commencement of the 210,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt Refinery and the 125,000 barrels per day Warri Refinery by the NNPCL, making a combined capacity of 335,000 barrels per day.
On November 26, 2024, the authorities gleefully announced that petrol production had commenced at the Port Harcourt Refinery after a rather convoluted period of rehabilitation that had suffered rounds of disappointing hiccups and failed promises.
During the unveiling of the refinery, NNPCL officials conducted stakeholders around the facility where they took samples of petrol, diesel, and kerosene. The oil giant then announced that truck loading had begun immediately. The Port Harcourt Refinery comprises two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of 60,000 barrels per day and the new plant 150,000bpd, both amounting to a total of 210,000bpd.
About a month after, the NNPCL also announced that the Warri Refinery had also commenced operation; that the resuscitated firms would focus on producing and storing critical products, including Straight Run Kerosene, Automotive Gas Oil, and heavy and light Naphtha.
The commencement of refinery operations prompted NNPCL and other stakeholders, including oil marketers, to commit to halting the importation of petroleum products. This came a miracle because none of the comatose refineries had been able to produce a litre of fuel since 2010 after a rigmarole of a Turnaround Maintenance(TAM) that had gulped over N12 trillion of the taxpayers’ funds!
This streak of breakthroughs, which came to break what had reeked like a jinx, were received with great national aplomb. And with the entrance of the 650,000 pbd-capacity Dangote Refinery behemoth, Nigerians who had suffered years of fuel crises that had overtaken the industry, began to heave in relief.
The commencement of refinery operations prompted the NNPCL and the other oil marketers, to commit to halting the importation of petroleum products. NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, , Mele Kyari, had enthused then about the fact that the national oil giant was no longer importing any fuel as it was now buying from local refineries.
“Today,” he had revealed in a show of jauntiness, “NNPC does not import any product; we are taking only from domestic refineries.” The NNPCL was then the sole off-taker of Dangote PMS before the Federal Government permitted other marketers to approach the refinery for direct lifting.
Kyari, who was speaking in Lagos then at the conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), took time to debunk the allegations that the NNPC was sabotaging the Dangote Refinery. Speaking on domestic refining, he said there were several media stunts around saying the NNPCL was now a saboteur of domestic refining by not willing to support domestic refineries.
He had clarified: “The point is very far from it and I’m going to speak to it straight. 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.
“It will happen. It’s already happening. Oil is found, as you know, in many unexpected locations across the world and people have choices. Therefore, we saw an opportunity to log supply to the domestic refinery, not just Dangote but any other refinery that operates in the country. So, it was a very informed business decision.
“Therefore, from day one, we knew that it is to our benefit to supply crude oil to the domestic refinery. So, we don’t need to be persuaded; we don’t need anyone to talk to us. There is no need for any pressure from the streets for us to do this. We are already doing this.”
Besides, the National Publicity Secretary of the Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, revealed that there was a time the GCEO of the NNPC, and that of the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority(NMDPRA) met and resolved to stop fuel imports; that they would rather begin to encourage local refining.
President Bola Tinubu himself was exhilarated then about the stoppage of imports, expressing delight that the launch of compressed natural gas into the country would save the country “over N2trillion a month used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and gas education.”
The President’s statement means that the country was spending a total of over N24 trillion annually to import petrol and diesel, excluding aviation fuel, kerosene, and gas. Now, resorting to fuel imports is a sharp contrast to earlier public declarations by the NNPCL and other marketers to prioritise domestic supply following the inauguration of three major refineries.
So, what is the bugger? Or are we to regard the whole TAM breakthrough as a mere duplicitous jamboree? Is it that the whole merry-go-round about the refineries is a big con, after all? It is beginning to reek like a mesh.
Our surmise is that ‘fuel importation cabal,’ whose shadowy but ostensibly powerful members had for decades been profiting from the international odioum called fuel imports, have probably not given up the battle to upend the titanic hurdles being hurled against further fuel imports.
We had warned last year when President Tinubu had ordered the NNPCL to start selling crude oil to the Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira, that the commendable policy was a potential tinderbox that might not be allowed to work unless he(President) switched on his powerful presidential eagle eye and insisted to have his way. That was, of course, before the PortHarcourt and Warri Refineries came on stream.
We had commented in an earlier editorial on the presidential order on crude sale then thus: “President Tinubu deserves the thumbs-up for being an intrepid leader who has the courage of his convictions, in taking this bold step. There is no doubt that selling crude to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries is a big blow to and bad business for the ‘fuel importation cabal’.
“But it is a potential tinderbox, unless it is enforced to the letter with presidential eagle-eyed finesse because the powerful ‘oil cabal’ may not give up easily. Dangote’s tiff with the regulators is, indeed, an eye opener. It is now pellucid, crystal clear why none of the nation’s four refineries has been allowed to work in spite of the billions of dollars that had been dissipated into the incredulously dubious and duplicitous turnaround maintenances(TAMs) of the refineries, believed to have gulped no less than N12 trillion since 2010.
“It is despicable and unthinkable that some unconscionable and wicked individuals still want the nation to continue to shamefully import refined petroleum products in spite of our four refineries and the world’s largest single train, that can easily meet local demand,and the foreign exchange challenge as well as the strain on our own currency.
“The policy on crude oil sale will definitely shore up the value of the naira, conserve scarce foreign exchange and ultimately lower inflationary rate. It will also drastically reduce the pump price of the products. And the multiplier effect is bound to ultimately reduce the costs of living.”
We have again scored a bullseye with our surmise. It is our strong suspicion that the insidious ‘oil cabal,’ whose tentacles are ingrained in the system are in subterranean manoeuvres to restore the despicable fuel importation regime through whatever subterfuges and strands they can cling to.
It will be recall that some marketers had flown a kite that they might soon resume products imports because imported products were, according to them, cheaper than those of Dangote Refinery. In other words, citing domestic shortages for resorting to fresh fuel imports was a smokescreen. The ‘oil cabal’ are ostensibly already ‘famished’ and desperate to resume their game.
However, it is a game of wits and the Dangote behemoth appears to be ardent in it. In the wake of the rash of fuel imports, it(Dangote Refinery) made a deft and significant move by announcing
a reduction in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), known as petrol, from N950 to N890 per litre.
Though the official reason adduced for this move was that the adjustment resulted from favourable shifts in the global energy market and a notable decline in international crude oil prices, but it was interpreted as a deft response to the ‘apostles’ of the resumption of fuel imports, aimed at pulling the rug from their feet. The resort to fuel imports was hinged partly on the claim that Dangote Refinery’s product prices were higher than those of imported products.
A statement from Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, officially attributed the reduction to a previous price increase on January 19, due to rising crude oil costs. However, with recent trends indicating a downturn in global oil prices, the refinery said it had proactively adjusted its pricing structure to benefit Nigerian consumers.
“The price reduction is expected to significantly lower petrol costs nationwide, creating a positive ripple effect throughout the economy. This reduction from N950 to N890 will result in a meaningful decrease in the cost of petrol, ultimately driving down the prices of goods and services, and easing the overall cost of living.
“Dangote Refinery urges marketers across Nigeria to ensure that the advantages of the reduced price reach the public. This initiative aligns with the economic revival efforts spearheaded by President Bola Tinubu, who is committed to making Nigeria self-sufficient in refined petroleum products and positioning the country as a leading oil export hub,” the statement added for effect.
The excuse of shortfalls in domestic products’ availability adduced to justify the resort to fuel imports is glaringly untenable. Nigeria’s current daily fuel consumption is said to be around 428,000 barrels per day(bpd), whereas Dangote Refinery’s daily production is said to be around 550,000 bpd, with the aim of gradually climbing to its full daily 650,000 bpd capacity, depending on the availability of crude.
And if there is a modicum of credulity in the claim that both Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries are actually producing something, however skeptical their operations may be(though Warri Refinery has been temporarily shut down for what they called maintenance), where then are the shortfalls impelling fresh imports?
Very instructively,too, Dangote Refinery made a significant statement some days ago when it sold two cargoes of aviation fuel to Saudi Aramco, owned by Saudi Arabia, and reputed to be the largest world’s oil producer and a leading global integrated oil and gas company. The move is seen as another deft one to confute the claim of domestic products shortages being bandied by some marketers to justify fresh fuel imports.
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, himself disclosed this last Tuesday when the Nigerian Economic Summit Group visited the Dangote Fertiliser Limited and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
“We are reaching the ambitious goals we set for ourselves, and I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just sold two cargoes of jet fuel to Saudi Aramco,” he had announced calmly to the visiting delegation. He added that since its production began in 2024, the refinery has steadily increased its output, now reaching 550,000 barrels per day.
Rather than dissipate undue energy to botching up the significant gains already made in the downstream sector, we admonish the NNPCL and the regulatory agency, NMDPRA, to stop hiding under one finger and strive to consolidate those strides by retracing their steps from further fuel imports and also incentivizing oil marketers to follow suit.
Enough is enough of exposing Nigeria to international ridicule as the only oil-producing nation that used to import refined products. Let us save the cumulative N24trillion that was being dissipated into fuel imports yearly. Apart from boosting our foreign reserves, shore up the troubled naira, the humongous amount in foreign currency, ploughed back into the economy, will significantly mitigate inflationary pressures.
