The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has allocated a total of 48.6 million barrels of crude oil to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery over the past ten months, according to investigations by Vanguard.
Details of the deliveries, based on official transaction data reviewed by Vanguard, revealed the following breakdown:
- December 2023: 3.4 million barrels
- February 2024: 3.5 million barrels
- March 2024: 3.3 million barrels
- April 2024: 3.3 million barrels
- May 2024: 3.0 million barrels
- June 2024: 5.1 million barrels
- July 2024: 5.1 million barrels
- August 2024: 4.8 million barrels
- September 2024: 5.6 million barrels
- October 2024 (to date): 11.7 million barrels
Despite these allocations, sources close to the Dangote Refinery indicated that the volumes supplied remain low compared to the refinery’s installed capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
The NNPCL has yet to disclose the crude oil requirements for Nigeria’s refineries, including Dangote, for the last quarter of 2024. However, the government’s estimate for the second quarter (Q2 2024) indicated a total requirement of 597,700 barrels per day for all of Nigeria’s refineries, which is an increase of 114,700 barrels per day from 483,000 barrels per day in the first half of the year. This suggests that the NNPCL may be supplying Dangote Refinery with less than 50% of its production capacity.
PETROL IMPORTS FALL BY 12%
In related news, the volume of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, saw a year-on-year decrease of 12.6% in 2023, dropping to 20.29 billion litres from 23.24 billion litres in 2022. This information was disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its “Petroleum Products Distribution Statistics for 2023,” which also noted a 16.9% decline in PMS truck deliveries to 20.22 billion litres from 24.35 billion litres in 2022.
Additionally, the report highlighted the following trends:
- The import volume of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, increased to 4.94 billion litres in 2023, up from 3.99 billion litres in 2022.
- Locally produced AGO rose to 109.39 million litres in 2023, representing a 6.76% increase from 102.47 million litres in 2022.
- Household Kerosene (HHK) production grew by 56%, reaching 69.7 million litres in 2023 compared to 44.68 million litres in 2022.
It’s noteworthy that local production of petrol has ceased since 2018 when 128.08 million litres were produced. According to the NBS, 20.30 billion litres of PMS were imported in 2023, reflecting a 13.77% decrease from 23.54 billion litres in 2022. Meanwhile, 4.94 billion litres of Automotive Gas Oil were imported in 2023, marking a 23.66% increase compared to 4.00 billion litres in the previous year.