Uche Usim, Abuja
A report by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) shows that over 18 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also called petrol, was imported in 2019.
According to the report, the total quantity of PMS supplied across the nation as at November was 18, 623,992,092 litres and the PMS average sufficiency stood at 40.68 days.
The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Abdulkadir Saidu, in the report emphasised the need for enhanced private sector participation in the refining business and the urgent retooling of the nation’s existing refineries to ensure improved production.
He said that 1,612 vessels laden with different petroleum products docked in Nigerian waters in 2019.
A breakdown of marketers’ performance shows that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was responsible for 99.61 per cent of the total 19,175,737,226 litres of petrol that was imported while Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN) imported 0.39 per cent in 2019. On the other hand, 166,332,185 litres of PMS was produced locally in the same year.
Other petroleum products imported into the Country are 4,586,878,439 litres of AGO; 128,110,313 litres of HHK; 951,769 084 litres of ATK; 306,791,987 litres of Base Oil, 125,561,557 litres of Bitumen and 45,980,957 litres of LFPO.
Saidu disclosed that fiscalisation of imported products was efficiently carried out at sea ports by industry recognised cargo inspectors in conjunction with the PPPRA field staff at sea ports.
The PPPRA Helmsman commended the dogged efforts of some marketers at sustaining the continuous development of the sector despite the inherent global economic challenges. This is evident in the number of new facilities that emerged in the downstream subsector of the petroleum industry in 2019.
Saidu reiterated that the agency will continue to ensure transparency in the oil and gas value chain by making available reliable data to strategic government agencies such as the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for adequate planning and decision making in the country.
“The Agency will also continue to collaborate with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other oil marketing companies towards improving the regulatory environment as well as ensuring uninterrupted products availability”, he added.