Olusola Bello and Dipo Oladeinde
The country imported approximately 22.5 billion litres of refined petroleum products in the year 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statics (NBS) latest report.
A breakdown of fuel import figure indicates that 17.31 biliion (bln) litres of premium motor spirits (PMS) otherwise known as petrol was imported, 4.28 bln litres of automotive gas oil (AGO) otherwise knlwn as diesel, 340.33 mln litres of household kerosene (HHK), 592.73 mln litres of aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) and 15.61 mln litres of low pour fuel oil (LPFO) were imported into the country in 2017.
According to the report, the months of July and August 2017 recorded the highest volumes of petrol imports into the country at 1.88 bln litres while the highest volume of diesel and household kerosene (HHK) were imported in March and April 2017 respectively.
State wide distribution of truck-out volume for 2017 showed that 18.36bn of petrol, 4.75 bln litres of diesel, 944.39 mln litres of household kerosene (HHK), 554.61 mln litres of aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) and 127.42 mln litres of low pour fuel oil (LPFO) were distributed nationwide during the period under review.
Nigeria consumes 35 million litres of PMS daily.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria within the first three months of 2017 spent $2.49 billion (N761 billion) on importation of refined petroleum products.
Nigeria’s refining capacity has grown over the years and is considered the fourth largest in Africa. The nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day which is housed by four refineries.
Despite having a name plate capacity that should meet domestic demand, the country still imports about 95 per cent of petroleum products to meet its current needs.
The production of refined products has been suboptimal and the country has consistently struggled to keep its refineries functioning optimally.
The outlook for refining has been tainted with uncertainty, due to the adverse effects of subsidies, poor maintenance, general operational failure and inconsistent feed.
All the nation’s three refineries currently produce between five and six million litres of petrol daily and about that same quantity of diesel daily.
