Daily petrol imports increased by 207% to 18.1m litres in June, says NMDPRA

By Abubakar Yunusa

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says Nigeria’s daily petrol imports increased by 207 percent to 18.1 million litres in June.
In its monthly performance factsheet, released on Friday, the regulator said the importation volume surged from 5.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
Despite the surge in imports, domestic petrol supply declined by 22 percent to 32.5 million litres per day — from 47.4 million litres per day in May.
The report showed that Nigeria’s total average daily petrol supply stood at 50.6 million litres in June, compared with 47.4 million litres in May.
The data showed that Dangote refinery produced an average of 39.1 million litres of petrol per day during the month.
Out of the volume, 32.5 million litres per day was supplied to the domestic market, accounting for the country’s entire local petrol supply, while 3.4 million litres per day was exported.
The report further showed that the refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 101.36 percent in June.
More so, the NMDPRA said average daily supply fell to 2.5 million litres in the reviewed month from 3.6 million litres in May.
The agency said Dangote refinery supplied the entire aviation fuel volume during the period.
Similarly, the average daily diesel also supply dropped to 16.2 million litres in June from 18.8 million litres in May, with Dangote refinery accounting for 15.6 million litres of the total diesel supplied.
According to the NMDPRA, average daily petrol consumption increased to 47.4 million litres in June, from 46.3 million litres recorded in the prior month.
The data also indicated that diesel consumption remained unchanged at 16 million litres per day, while aviation fuel consumption declined to 2.9 million litres per day from 3.1 million litres.
The national petrol stock sufficiency, according to the authority, rose to 20 days in June, from 16.2 days in May.
Providing updates on state-owned assets, the report said the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries — operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited — remained shut in the reviewed month.
However, modular refineries — including Walter Smith, Edo refinery, and Aradel refinery — continued operations, producing about 478,000 litres of diesel per day, with 562,000 litres supplied to the domestic market.
The NMDPRA noted that domestic refineries received 19.12 million barrels of crude oil in June, compared with 17.92 million barrels of crude in May.
The feedstock comprised 17.08 million barrels of domestic crude oil and 2.04 million barrels of imported crude.