No fewer than four vessels carrying imported Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, arrived at seaports situated along the nation’s borders between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20, according to findings.
According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority on Sunday, about 123.4 million litres of PMS were berthed at two seaports to improve fuel supply nationwide.
The latest development confirms an exclusive report, which disclosed that oil dealers intend to import the commodity to supplement the supply from the $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
The dealers had stated that the supply from the Lekki-based plant was currently insufficient to meet domestic demand.
They had alleged that the plant was producing about 10 million litres of petrol daily, as against the 25 million litres that it earlier promised to produce.
In September, also reported that dealers imported about 141 million litres of PMS following a hike in the pump prices of petrol produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
They said the fair market price following the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the government allowed room for PMS imports.
An analysis of the document showed that the commodities landed at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State.
Our correspondent, however, could not confirm if any of the vessels belonged to the NNPCL or only oil marketers.
The first shipment carrying 35,000 metric tonnes of PMS allocated to the West African Port Services berthed at terminal ASPM jetty on Friday, October 18, at 10.13 am.
This was followed by 37,000 metric tonnes of fuel assigned to Intership at 3.37 pm. It also berthed at terminal ASPM jetty.
As of 3:59 pm of the same day, another vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel berthed. It was assigned to Peak Shipping as its agent.
At the Calabar port, a vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at the Eco marine terminal on Sunday at 8:02 am.
This means the four vessels brought in 92,000 metric tonnes.