SHAME: Nigeria Now Imports Fuel From Niger?
Fuel marketers in Katsina have begun importing
refined petroleum products from the newly-built refinery in neighbouring
Niger Republic, investigations by Daily Trust show.
Niger-refined diesel is already available in many filling stations in
Katsina State, and marketers say plans are on to begin importing petrol
from the Soraz refinery.
The refinery was opened in November in
Zinder, just 80 kilometres north of the border with Nigeria, with enough
capacity to satisfy domestic requirements and a huge surplus for
export.
Until the recent development, Nigeria
imports refined products only from far away countries including India,
Brazil and Netherlands.
Daily Trust investigations show that a
company belonging to business mogul Dahiru Mangal started importing
diesel from the Soraz refinery in April to outlets in Katsina State.
“We have been importing diesel from
Niger for almost four months now. We have so far made three trips of 30
trucks each,” an official at D.B. Mangal Petroleum, Alhaji Lawal Dahiru
Mangal, told Daily Trust in Katsina.
Checks at some of the filling stations
selling the Niger-refined diesel show that a litre sells at N160,
compared with the N170 price of diesel brought up North from the ports
in Lagos.
The Mangal company sells the imported commodity to end users at its own filling stations and to other retailers in the state.
Alhaji Lawal said the company has
obtained import license from the Federal Government and “also met all
requirements put in place by the government for importation of the
commodity.”
Asked if they will consider bringing in
petrol, he said, “For now we are not importing petrol from Niger but
arrangements are on for its importation. We are studying the situation
for now and if we are okay with the gains we will start.”
He added that the price of the commodity
varies even at their own D.B. Mangal filling stations depending on the
distance of the retail outlet.
“The price of the commodity within
Katsina metropolis is different from the price at D.B. Mangal’s outlets
outside Katsina,” he said, adding “We have permanent customers from
within and outside Katsina State that are buying the commodity from us.”
Some of the drivers of D.B. Mangal Petroleum confirmed to Daily Trust that they do bring in diesel from Niger.
“We are importing 30 trucks of diesel
per trip from Niger. So far we have made three trips in four months.
Right now, we have about eight trucks of diesel that are not offloaded,”
one of the drivers said.
A fuel attendant at the I.M. Petroleum in Katsina also told Daily Trust that they “have bought diesel from Mangal twice” so far.
He said the commodity is cheaper at
Mangal’s company when compared with the price of diesel imported to
Nigeria through the seaports. “Availability at Mangal company also
matters; you can always get the commodity from Mangal,” he said.
No official of the Department of
Petroleum Resources in Abuja was available for comments yesterday.
Spokeswoman for DPR, Mrs Belema Osibodu, did not answer her calls and
did not respond to a text message sent to her.
But a source at the department said
there were some discussions about diesel import permits applied by some
companies who want to import from Niger Republic.
The source said since diesel is a
deregulated product, marketers may import the commodity when they
satisfy regulatory requirements.
The Niger refinery, located some 900 km
east of the capital Niamey, is a 20,000 barrel-per-day capacity and will
be fed entirely by oil from the newly-launched Agadem oilfield, a
further 700 km east.
It will initially draw crude from three
Agadem wells with reserves totalling 480 million barrels. Local
consumption of refined products accounts for 7,000 barrels a day with
plans to export the rest.
The refinery is 60 percent-owned by
Chinese state oil company CNPC and 40 percent by Niger. It follows a $5
billion deal signed between the two in 2008 to concurrently build the
plant and develop crude oil from Agadem.
