Illegally refined fuel from Niger Delta cleaner than imported one —Report

The quality of fuel imported into Nigeria is so dirty that it cannot be sold in countries with “higher and better-implemented standards,” a report has claimed.

According to the report, the situation is so bad that the average fuel refined illegally in the creeks of the Niger Delta, are of better quality than the imported ones.

The report was recently published by Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), an international resource watchdog group.

On how it arrived at the report, the group said it carried out laboratory analysis of fuel samples collected from 45 government-licensed filling stations and unofficial (46) fuel selling points in Lagos, Rivers and Bayelsa states.

In the report entitled Dirty Fuel: An analysis of official and unofficial petroleum products in the Niger Delta, the organisation said in Lagos, it collected official samples from filling stations close to the port on assumption that it would be “most likely to be a true representation of imported refined products”.

Read Also: It remains a mystery why Nigeria keeps importing fuel —NNPC boss, Kyari

Laboratory results, according to the report, showed that the average official diesel sample contained 204 times more fuel sulphur than the European Union fuel standards and the petrol contained 43 times more sulphur.

On the other hand, unofficial diesel samples contained 152 times more fuel sulphur than the EU standard and the black market petrol contained 40 times more sulphur than the EU standard.

For kerosine, it said official samples were reported to have higher standards than unofficial samples.

“Our research suggests that Nigeria is having dirty fuel dumped on it that cannot be sold to other countries with higher and better-implemented standards,” the UK Guardian quoted Florence Kayemba, SDN programme manager, to have said.

“The situation is so bad that the average diesel sampled are of an even lower quality than that produced by artisanal refining camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta,” the report said.

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