Mohammed Shosanya
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA),Tuesday reacted to allegations of importing dirty fuel being imported into the country,saying that no such thing ever occured.
The Executive Director of Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure at the NMDPRA, Ogbugo Ukoha,disclosed that there is no dirty fuel the Authority would encourage to come into Nigeria.
He told journalists shortly after a meeting with the oil marketers and local refiners at the headquarters of the NMDPRA in Abuja.
“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.
The Vice President, Oil and Gas, at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin, had weekend accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of doing everything to frustrate the survival of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.
Edwin,who spoke to a group of energy editors at a one-day training programme organised by the Dangote Group,also lamented the activity of the NMDPRA in granting licences indiscriminately to marketers to import dirty refined products into the country.
But, NMDPRA said it takes seriously its statutory mandate to ensure that only quality petroleum products are supplied and consumed in Nigeria.
He 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 ppm,” he said.
He assured that this is a mandate that the authority takes very seriously and that it is determined to guarantee the well-being and health of Nigerians.
“There is no dirty fuel that we would encourage to come into Nigeria. I said there is no dirty fuel being brought in and I have given you the statistics for June. What we have on the average from imports have continued to go down from 200 on the average ppm and now we have it far below the 50 ppm that is in the law, provided under the law.
“And then 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 said.
On the outcome of the meeting, Mr Ukoha said the meeting was aimed at promoting collaboration in a manner that ensures and guarantees energy security within the country.
“Our discussions covered considerable issues, very significant and profound. Issues of pricing, competition have been raised and we will continue to engage with every operator to see that we land at a place that is ultimately beneficial to Nigeria and Nigerians,” he added.