Oil marketers have said that the volume of petrol produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is currently not enough to meet domestic demand.
The dealers have, consequently, resolved to import the commodity to augment the supply from the $20bn refinery.
The resolve of the dealers in in tandem with the Trade Union Congress’ (TUC) demand that the refinery ramp up production, as some alleged that the plant was producing about 10 million litres of petrol daily, as against the 25 million litres it earlier promised to produce.
Oil marketers, have, however, stated that the Dangote Refinery is not producing up to that volume, which necessitates the need for the shortfall to be sorted through the importation of PMS by dealers.
National President of TUC, Festus Osifo, said in a recent press briefing that the NNPC should source refined petrol from other places if the Dangote refinery could not meet the current daily demands of Nigerians.
“For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability,” the TUC boss stated.
The PUNCH in a report on Wednesday, quoted a major oil marketer to have claimed that the Dangote Refinery was producing about 10 million litres of petrol currently, whereas the most recent PMS consumption figure released by the NMDPRA indicated that Nigeria required about 40 million litres of the product daily.
“I reliably confirmed that they are not refining up to 10 million litres of PMS daily. And even for AGO (diesel), they don’t have enough volumes. We are in confusion right now in the downstream oil sector.
“And it may shock you to know that NNPCL does not have any vessel now that is coming, which could be used to augment what Dangote is producing. As we speak now, I don’t think they have vessels coming into the country with products. And this is because of the Dangote refinery but the refinery is not producing enough.”
The petrol marketer noted that the country would have started witnessing widespread queues had the cost of petrol been lower than the current price.
“The traffic situation on our roads reveals all this. The roads are now freer than they used to be in the past when petrol was subsidised. This is because the purchasing power is not there anymore. People now consider the cost of moving from one point to the other,” the source stated.
National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Hammed Fashola, also told The PUNCH that the association would soon commence the importation of PMS.
He said this was why two tank farms were acquired by the group in Calabar and Lagos.
“We have acquired a tank farm in Calabar and another one in Lagos. We are positioning ourselves for the new era. We will not disclose the capacity of the tank farms now.
“We are free to start importation. With the new development, we are going to get our import licence soon, even as we are going to get a licence to buy from Dangote. So, it’s good to have two or three places to source your products from,” he said.
When asked why the association was planning importation at a time government was trying to stop it, Fashola said, “Once there is full deregulation, everybody’s free to bring in their products. And if the government doesn’t allow that, we will come back to square one.
“Monopoly will set in, which is not too good for Nigerians. You must have an alternative in life. When you don’t have an alternative, everything stands still.”
Speaking on the competitiveness of the price of imported PMS and locally-produced ones, he said the price of crude was the same globally.
“These locally produced petroleum products you are talking about, don’t forget that even the price of crude oil is still priced at the international rate. Don’t forget about that. So, we will look at it and the exchange rate, those are the two factors that determine the price. So, it depends,” he noted, adding that IPMAN had started working on the import license with the NMDPRA.
