FG counters Dangote, says no imported dirty fuel in Nigeria

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says there is no imported dirty fuel in the country.

The NMDPRA said it would never encourage the importation of dirty fuel into the country, stressing that it would ensure only quality petroleum products are consumed by Nigerians.

The NMDPRA Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Ogbugo Ukoha, made this known while speaking with newsmen after a meeting with the oil marketers and local refiners in Abuja on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals had accused the Authority of granting licenses to oil marketers to import dirty fuel into the country.

The Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin, had accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of doing everything to frustrate the survival of Dangote refinery.

However, Ukoha said the sulphur content in the fuel even in June was not above the lawful limit.

He said: “There is no dirty fuel being brought in and I have given you the statistics for June.

Dangote accuses IOCs of frustrating refinery’s survival

“What we have on the average from the imports have continued to go down from 200 Parts Per Million (PPM) on the average and now we have it far below the 50 PPM that is provided under the law.”

The NMDPRA official recalled that ECOWAS, in 2020, endorsed a declaration adopting the African Fuel Roadmap that requires certain products have a minimum 50PPT per million litres of sulphur.

Ukoha said while it encouraged almost immediate enforcement on import to comply with that standard, the same treaty deferred enforcement for local refiners up to December 31, 2024.

According to him, though the time for enforcement on local refineries is not due, the plants are complying on their own.

“And with the refineries, there is no need to enforce that until the end of this year. But they themselves are already taking steps to see that is also guaranteed,” he added.

Ukoha noted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, Section 318, also captured and upheld the ECOWAS treaty.

The Star