DPR alarmed at capital flight through fuel importation

…. As P-Harcourt Refinery begins production

By Clara Nwachukwu

LAGOS — THE Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, the regulator of the oil and gas industry, is alarmed at the level of capital flight from the country, through fuel importation.

Petroleum products importation rose significantly during the second quarter, as Nigeria’s four refineries could only muscle up a combined  20.13 per cent of their installed capacity in the second quarter of the year.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos yesterday, on development in the industry in the second quarter, April to June, the newly appointed Director, DPR, Mr. Wada Andrew Obaje, said only two of the four refineries were in operation during the period while the two Port Harcourt refineries were out of operations.

P-Harcourt refinery 
While the DPR worries about dwindling local refining capacity, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, announced the re-streaming of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, which had been out of operation on account of technical challenges including power shortages.

Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr. Austen Oniwon, disclosed this when the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, visited him in his office on Monday in Abuja.

Oniwon said with the re-streaming, the refinery commenced the immediate supply of petroleum products to its depot in Aba, Abia State, to boost supply and distribution across the country.

Products importation
According to the DPR data, about three million metric tonnes, MT, of premium motor spirit, populalry called petrol, was imported during the period in review, while over 770,127 MT of automotive gas oil, diesel, with over 329,778MT of dual purpose kerosene came in at the same period.

As at June 22, the latest data on market fundamentals posted on the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA’s website, the landing costs for the products were put at N94/litre; N103/litre; and N106.10/litre for petrol, diesel and kerosene respectively.
But the PPPRA, which regulates products supply and distribution in the country could not quantify the total value of the products imported.

A top official of the agency when contacted by Vanguard, said in confidence that the PPPRA, which pays subsidy on petrol and kerosene, had not concluded the reconciliation of the products imported during the second quarter of the year.
He said: “It is not until we have finished compiling the subsidy claims that we will know how much petrol was imported. As you know, diesel is fully deregulated, while kerosene is solely handled by the NNPC.” 

Refining capacity
In a breakdown of the nation’s average refining capacity, the DPR boss said while the two Port Harcourt refineries remained redundant, succour came from the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, which had the highest capacity utilisation of 44.16 per cent and from the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KPRC, with 31.26 per cent capacity.     

Altghough the NNPC could not give the capacity output at the Port Harcourt, but Mr. Oniwon said: “For the first time in a long while, the nation’s three Refineries (Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt) are operating simultaneously and contributing effectively towards the nation’s desire to increase local refining capacity.”