Local refineries produce less than 1% of petrol consumed in Nigeria

The latest report from Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has revealed that a total of 19.18 billion litres of petroleum products was imported into the country in 2019. It equally disclosed that only 166.33 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) were produced by Nigeria’s four moribund refineries. Put differently, Nigeria produced a meagre 0.87% of its local petrol demand in 2019 while import accounted for the rest 99.13%.

Addukadir Saidu, Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, in the report released in Abuja Wednesday called for greater private participation in oil refining in the country and a comprehensive overhauling of Nigeria’s refineries for improved output.

“The total quantity of PMS supplied across the nation as at November 2019 was 18,623,992,092 litres and the PMS average sufficiency stood at 40.68 days,” the report said.

Saidu observed that 1,612 vessels laden with petroleum products docked in Nigerian waters in 2019.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was responsible for 99.61 per cent of the total quantity of petrol imported into Nigeria in 2019 while the Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN) imported 0.39 per cent.

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“Other petroleum products imported into the country were 4,586,878,439 litres of Automotive Gas Oil; 128,110,313 litres of Household Kerosene; 951,769 084 litres of Aviation Turbine Kerosene; 306,791,987 litres of Base Oil; 125,561,557 litres of Bitumen and 45,980,957 litres of Low Pour Fuel Oil,” the report added.

Mr Saidu applauded the marketers responsible for sustaining the continuous development of the sector in spite of global economic challenges. This he said was obvious in the number of new facilities that sprang up in the downstream subsector of the petroleum industry last year.

He promised the agency would not relent in promoting transparency in the oil and gas value chain by making reliable data accessible to strategic government agencies.

“The agency will also continue to collaborate with the NNPC and other Oil Marketing Companies towards improving the regulatory environment, as well as ensuring uninterrupted product availability,” he remarked.

At combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels of oil per day, Nigeria’s four refineries are capable of producing about 26.962 billion litres of petroleum products every year at full optimisation whereas it produced just 166.33 million in 2019. By implication, the refineries functioned at just 0.62% of their capacity last year due largely to the decrepit refining infrastructure, poor maintenance culture among others.

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