Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Tuesday, June 25, said there is no imported dirty fuel in the country.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery recently accused the authority of issuing licenses to marketers to import dirty fuel into the country.
But addressing reporters after a meeting with oil marketers and local refiners in Abuja, the Authority’s distribution systems, storage, and retailing infrastructure executive director, Ogbugo Ukoha, said the sulphur content in the fuel even this June is not above the lawful limit.
He said, “There is no dirty fuel being brought in. I am giving you the statistics for June and what we have on the average from the import has continued to go down from 200PPM of the average and now we have it below 50PPM (Parts per million) that is provided under the law.”
He recalled that the Economics Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Heads of States in 2020 endorsed a declaration, adopting the African Fuel Roadmap that requires that certain products have a minimum 50PPT per million litres of sulphur.
The Executive Director said while it encourages almost immediate enforcement, on import to comply with regards to standards, the same treaty deferred enforcement for local refiners up to 31st December 2024.
He also noted that despite the time for enforcement on local refineries not due, the plants are complying on their own.
“And with the refineries, there is no need to enforce that until the end of this year. But they are already taking steps to see that is also guaranteed,” he said.
Ogbogu noted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021, section 318 also captured and upheld the ECOWAS treaty.
He added: “So as an Authority what have we done since we came into being? We started by engendering compliance. We saw a downward trend up to 2022-2023 December.”
The Executive Director admitted there was a spike in the sulphur content of imported products between December 2023 and January 2024, which resulted in vigorous enforcement in February.
His words: “In December and in January of this year, we noticed a spike in the sulphur content of products being imported. And again now began strong enforcement from 1st February.”
He, however, noted that since then the level of contamination of imported fuel has declined in every Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) below the lawful 50PPM.
“I am happy to tell Nigerians that up until as at we speak in June, the average sulphur content in every AGO that is brought into Nigeria is far below what the 50PPM provision is in the law,” he said.
He revealed that the new refineries are even built with plant sulphurization limit which will reduce it to 10PPM.
Allaying Nigerians fear over any imported dirty fuel, Ogbogu vowed that the Authority will not allow it into the country.
He said, “In the local refineries, remember that declaration deferred so they continued to produce at a higher level.
“But we are not very anxious about that because even the new refineries that are coming on have within their design of the plants the sulphurization limit that we will see in the nearest future going down as low as 10PPM.
“So, I would like to assure Nigeria that this is a mandate that the Authority takes very seriously and that we are here to guarantee the well-being and health of Nigeria and there is no dirty fuel we will encourage to come into Nigeria.”
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