The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has refuted claims that it issued a fuel importation permit to the Dangote Group.
During a press briefing at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Engr. Farouk Ahmed, clarified that the authority granted fuel importation permits to six companies for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in July, and Dangote Group was not among the approved companies.
Ahmed further explained that reports suggesting that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) issued fuel importation permits to only three companies were false, adding that the NNPC did not possess the authority to issue such permits.
Engr. Ahmed maintained that the claim that the NNPC issued a fuel importation permit to any entity was inaccurate.
He also mentioned that while six companies had already been approved for importation in July, the NMDPRA had received additional 23 applications that were currently under review for subsequent approvals.
“As of this morning, for the month of July, we have, at least, received and cleared six companies that have expressed interest and have vessels offshore that they needed to fix for delivery in July.
“We also have about 23 other companies that have expressed interest to import, and these applications are coming. As we speak now, they keep coming and we keep evaluating all of that.
“So the good thing is that we actually have a lot of interest in companies wanting to import Premium Motor Spirit, which means that NNPC’s burden will be reduced because as we get more and more companies coming in, NNPC might decide to also slow down in line with the provision of the law which FCCPC states that in order to avoid any monopoly, no company should go more than 40%.
“So in line with that, however, prior to that happening, NNPC, of course, being the port of last resort, has over 30 days sufficiency of premium motor spirt currently, as of today.
“Almost 14 days of the 30 is on now, which means we have about 14 to 15 days sufficiency across the country.
“There are several companies that applied for fuel importation permit. So you can apply for importation to get access to the port. And by the way, we are open to all those who are interested in importing.
“We have guidelines which are not very stringent because we’re trying to encourage importation. There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December or November, or anytime, but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.
“The beauty of it is that there are interests which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution”, he said.
