Economist and vitality sector analyst Kelvin Emmanuel has said that the Dangote Refinery is at the moment the one facility in Nigeria genuinely producing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), generally known as petrol.
Emmanuel made the declare whereas talking throughout the Morning Temporary program on Channels Tv on Monday.
He dismissed the federal government’s narrative across the rejuvenation of state-owned refineries, arguing that they’re both non-functional or participating in mere mixing operations, not precise refining of PMS.
“I’ve at all times stated it, and I stand by it: the one refinery in Nigeria producing PMS is Dangote. Dangote is doing 44 million liters of PMS every day,” he declared.
“In distinction, NNPC just isn’t refining PMS – they’re solely mixing,” he added.
“Warri has a catalytic reforming unit, however Warri’s catalytic reforming unit just isn’t useful,” Emmanuel stated.
“So you possibly can’t really refine PMS. You may produce naphtha, however you possibly can’t break it into increased distillates like PMS. The identical factor applies in Port Harcourt.”
He added that information from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) helps his claims, exhibiting that the state-run refineries aren’t producing petrol.
“What they have been doing was they barge C5 raciness to the refinery, mix with NAFTA, condense it and name it PMS,” Emmanuel defined.
Refineries Not Working as Claimed
Emmanuel outlined the manufacturing capacities of Nigeria’s main refineries – Port Harcourt (60,000 and 150,000 barrels per day within the previous and new items, respectively), Warri (125,000), and Kaduna (110,000) – however insisted none of them is actively refining PMS.
He famous that Kaduna Refinery has two Crude Distillation Items (CDUs), CDU1 and CDU2, with capacities of fifty,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, respectively. Regardless of this, refining stays at a standstill.
“The federal government-owned refineries aren’t doing what they’re presupposed to do,” he said. “There’s Arabel in River State, there’s Walter Smith, there’s DuPont Mainstream, there’s OPAC. These are modular refineries, , small refineries, 11,000, 5,000 right here, 1,000 right here, 2,500 right here.”
Hydrocarbon Accounting Framework Missing
Past refining capability, Emmanuel criticized the federal authorities for missing a correct hydrocarbon accounting framework. This, he argued, has led to a gross underestimation – or outright misreporting – of crude oil manufacturing volumes and income allocation.
“I’ll say that the Nigerian authorities in the present day doesn’t have an correct estimate of the quantity of crude oil that involves floor,” he stated. “Nigeria is among the few crude oil-producing international locations on this planet with no hydrocarbon accounting framework.”
He defined that such a framework would enable companies just like the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum Assets to independently confirm manufacturing volumes and authorities entitlements in real-time.
“The hydrocarbon accounting framework is not only a spreadsheet. Part 69 of the Petroleum Trade Act (PIA) requires a correct grid system, GIS mapping for onshore acreages, and metering of wellheads, aggregation pipes, and transmission pipelines,” Emmanuel stated.
Emmanuel referenced the controversial $450 million raised by a agency licensed to function in Nigeria, which was given crude oil by the NNPC as an upfront cost to fund refinery upkeep.
He questioned the logic behind investing closely in turnaround upkeep quite than constructing a brand new refinery altogether.
In keeping with him, the cash authorised by the Federal Govt Council (FEC) in 2021 for turnaround upkeep was sufficient to construct a brand-new refinery.
What it is best to know
The Dangote Refinery – the most important in Africa – began importing crude oil overseas final 12 months after the NNPCL failed to provide it with enough crude oil for its operations, as reported by Nairametrics.
- In November 2024, Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, urged collaboration with native refineries to satisfy Nigeria’s day by day petrol demand.
- The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has lately exported two jet gas cargoes to Saudi Aramco, the nationwide oil firm of Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil producer.
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