The Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Ogbugo Ukoha has disclosed that there is no dirty fuel being imported into the country.
“There is no dirty fuel that we would encourage to come into Nigeria. And there is no dirty fuel being brought in,” Mr Ukoha said.
This he disclosed while speaking to journalists after a meeting with the oil marketers and local refiners at the headquarters of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in Abuja on Tuesday.
This was in response to The Vice President, Oil and Gas, at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin’s statements on Sunday where he accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of doing everything to frustrate the survival of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals. He was speaking to a group of journalists at a one-day training programme organised by the Dangote Group, Mr Edwin lamented the activity of the NMDPRA in granting licences indiscriminately to marketers to import dirty refined products into the country.
The Dangote Industries Vice President lamented the continued issuance of import licences in large quantities to traders who are buying the extremely high sulphur diesel from Russia and dumping it in the Nigerian Market. Since the US, EU and UK imposed a Price Cap Scheme from 5th February, 2023 on Russian Petroleum Products, a large number of vessels are waiting near Togo with Russian ultra-high sulphur diesel and, they are being purchased and dumped into the Nigerian Market.
The NMDPRA on Tuesday responded by saying that it takes seriously its statutory mandate to ensure that only quality petroleum products are supplied and consumed in Nigeria.
Mr Ukoha, explained that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) heads of state in 2020 endorsed a declaration adopting the Afri-5 fuel roadmap that requires that certain products have minimum 50 parts per million (ppm) litres of sulphur.
“Whilst it encouraged almost an immediate enforcement against imports to comply with that standard, the same treaty deferred enforcement for local refineries up to 31 December 2024.” He said section 317 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 also captured and upheld this ECOWAS treaty.
“So as an authority, what have we done since we came into being? We started by engendering compliance. We saw a downward trend up to December 2023. In December and in January of this year, we noticed a spike in the sulphur contents of products being imported. And we again now began strong enforcement from 1 February.
“I am happy to tell Nigerians that up until as we speak in June, the average sulphur content in every Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) that is brought into Nigeria is far below, the average is far below what the 50 ppm provision is in the law.
“With the local refineries, remember that declaration deferred it and so they continue to produce at a higher level. But we are not very anxious about that because even the new refineries that are coming in have within their design of the plant desulphurisation units that will see in the nearest future that sulphur going down as low as 10 pm,” he said.
The Dangote Industries Vice President mentioned that a large number of vessels are waiting near Togo with Russian ultra-high sulphur diesel and, they are being purchased and dumped into the Nigerian Market. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) should ensure all loopholes are blocked and no vessels are waiting near Togo with Russian ultra-high sulphur diesel to find its way into the Nigerian market ensuring the health and safety of Nigerians.
