As the 650,000 bpd Dangote Refinery ramps up premium motor spirit (PMS) production to meet Nigeria’s local demand, the importation of the petroleum product into Nigeria has drastically dropped by around 80% in the first two weeks of October.
This revelation follows analysis of data from S&P Global Commodity Insights ship-tracking report published on Tuesday.
According to the data, in the first week of October, only 280,400 barrels of gasoline and blend stock were imported into Nigeria. In the second week of October, only one product tanker was reported to have shipped 290,567 barrels of PMS to Nigeria from Antwerp in Belgium to Lagos, Nigeria.
This is in sharp contrast the weekly average of 1.3 million barrels recorded in August in September. Using this average, it means for the first two weeks of August and September, an average of 2.6 million barrels of PMS (equivalent of 410.8 million litres) were imported.
The cumulative amount of PMS so far imported in October, 2024 into Nigeria is 570,967 barrels (90.78 million litres), representing just 22% of the previous month’s corresponding two weeks imported volume. This indicates a drop of around 80%.
From the S&P report, since October 8, no additional gasoline shipments have been brought into Nigeria.
This significant decline in the volume of imported PMS into Nigeria coincides with the gradual ramping of PMS production by the multi-billion dollar Dangote Refinery since it officially began rolling out the product in September.
This massive decline also means that the flow of PMS from refineries in Europe (especially Northwest European countries such as Belgium, Netherlands and Norway) has taken a major hit as a result of the coming on stream of the Dangote Refinery.
When the Dangote Refinery reaches it full operational capacity of 650,000 bpd, it is expected to meet Nigeria’s entire fuel consumption demand while also exporting to neighbouring African countries and the Caribbean.