The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started supplying Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to some oil marketers directly without recourse to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
It was gathered that while more oil marketers were intensifying efforts to buy the product directly from the plant, others were importing the commodity, as hundreds of millions of litres of imported PMS should hit Nigeria’s shores in two weeks’ time.
It was reported on Monday that no fewer than four vessels carrying imported PMS arrived at seaports situated along the nation’s borders between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20.
The report cited a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority, which showed that about 123.4 million litres of PMS were berthed at two seaports to improve fuel supply nationwide.
The development confirmed an earlier exclusive report by The PUNCH, which disclosed that oil dealers intend to import the commodity to supplement the supply from the $20bn Dangote refinery.
Meanwhile, as major oil marketers import the commodity, their counterparts have started lifting PMS directly from the Lekki-based plant.
A senior official at the refinery said marketers are now allowed to approach the company for direct business transactions on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis.
Another official at the facility showed one of our correspondents the trucks of some marketers loading the product directly from the plant without going through NNPC.
The official explained that due to the high demand for petrol in Nigeria and other countries, the refinery had focused on ensuring 53 per cent of PMS production from its crude oil supplies.