Petroleum marketers have once again begun importing petrol to bolster the country’s fuel supply, as the Dangote Refinery has fallen short of demand.
Between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20, four vessels containing a total of 123.4 million liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) docked at Nigerian ports.
Earlier reports from Akelicious indicated that the Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has struggled to meet its production commitments, raising alarms about potential fuel shortages. Current output has reportedly dropped to just 10 million liters of petrol per day, significantly lower than the initial promise of 25 million liters.
The full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the federal government has facilitated PMS imports, allowing dealers to capitalize on favorable market prices. In September alone, they imported around 141 million liters of PMS.
Documentation from the Nigerian Port Authority shows that the four vessels unloaded their cargo at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State. Specifically, the shipments included 35,000 metric tonnes at Apapa port on October 18, followed by another 37,000 metric tonnes on the same day, an additional 10,000 metric tonnes at Apapa port, and 10,000 metric tonnes at Calabar port on October 20, as reported by Punch Newspaper.
Using the conversion rate of 1,341 liters per metric tonne, the total petrol import reaches approximately 123.4 million liters.
