Dangote refinery supplies 20m litres out of Nigeria’s 50m litres daily petrol consumption – NMDPRA

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says the Dangote refinery supplies an average of up to 20 million litres of petrol daily across the country.

Farouk Ahmed, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the NMDPRA, spoke on Thursday at the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) annual conference in Lagos.

“Without a shadow of doubt, the operation of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery has changed the supply dynamics with an average daily contribution of up to 20 million litres, undoubtedly with potential for future ramp up, which we all hope we will see as we go along,” he said.

Represented by George Ene-Ita, the NMDPRA spokesperson, Ahmed said the country’s national daily consumption is “around 50 million litres of PMS daily”.

“We need to encourage the biggest refinery to do all it can to begin to shape up in order for us to have local consumption and supply ramped up,” he said.

“To further strengthen our energy security, we must operationalize petroleum product stock in line with the provisions of the PIA 2021 to provide a buffer against major supply disruptions.”

Ahmed said the NMPPRA is expediting the implementation of licensing standards for storage and depot operations, while intensifying surveillance of product movements to curb adulteration, arbitrage, hoarding, and truck-in-transit accidents.

“As a country, Nigeria is in urgent need of a diversified investment approach in our energy mix to further drive an expansion in the economy beyond the traditional focus on fossil fuels,” he said.

“As we invest in that infrastructure, we must also ensure we diversify our energy sources and reduce dependency from any single fuel.

“It is important to note that the number of LPG filling plants in the country is less than 3,000, while the CNG compression station is less than 50 for a country of over 200 million citizens.”

The NMDPRA CEO said adopting a strategic approach to developing other energy sources has the potential to drive sustained economic growth.

He added that this would also create jobs, broaden the nation’s revenue base, and provide the government with diversified income streams to support inclusive and scalable national development.(The Cable)