Niger-refined diesel is already available in many filling stations in Katsina State, and marketers say plans are on to begin importing petrol from the Soraz refinery.
The refinery was opened in November in Zinder, just 80 kilometres north of the border with Nigeria, with enough capacity to satisfy domestic requirements and a huge surplus for export.
Until the recent development, Nigeria imports refined products only from far away countries including India, Brazil and Netherlands.
A company belonging to business mogul Dahiru Mangal started importing diesel from the Soraz refinery in April to outlets in Katsina State.
“We have been importing diesel from Niger for almost four months now. We have so far made three trips of 30 trucks each,” an official at D.B. Mangal Petroleum, Alhaji Lawal Dahiru Mangal, told reporters in katsina
Checks at some of the filling stations selling the Niger-refined diesel show that a litre sells at N160, compared with the N170 price of diesel brought up North from the ports in Lagos.
The Mangal company sells the imported commodity to end users at its own filling stations and to other retailers in the state.
Alhaji Lawal said the company has obtained import license from the Federal Government and “also met all requirements put in place by the government for importation of the commodity.”
Asked if they will consider bringing in petrol, he said, “For now we are not importing petrol from Niger but arrangements are on for its importation. We are studying the situation for now and if we are okay with the gains we will start.”
He added that the price of the commodity varies even at their own D.B. Mangal filling stations depending on the distance of the retail outlet.
“The price of the commodity within Katsina metropolis is different from the price at D.B. Mangal’s outlets outside Katsina,” he said, adding “We have permanent customers from within and outside Katsina State that are buying the commodity from us.”
Some of the drivers of D.B. Mangal Petroleum confirmed the facts.
“We are importing 30 trucks of diesel per trip from Niger. So far we have made three trips in four months. Right now, we have about eight trucks of diesel that are not offloaded,” one of the drivers said.
A fuel attendant at the I.M. Petroleum in Katsina also told Daily Trust that they “have bought diesel from Mangal twice” so far.
He said the commodity is cheaper at Mangal’s company when compared with the price of diesel imported to Nigeria through the seaports. “Availability at Mangal company also matters; you can always get the commodity from Mangal,” he said.
No official of the Department of Petroleum Resources in Abuja was available for comments yesterday. Spokeswoman for DPR, Mrs Belema Osibodu, did not answer her calls and did not respond to a text message sent to her.
But a source at the department said there were some discussions about diesel import permits applied by some companies who want to import from Niger Republic.
The source said since diesel is a deregulated product, marketers may import the commodity when they satisfy regulatory requirements.
The Niger refinery, located some 900 km east of the capital Niamey, is a 20,000 barrel-per-day capacity and will be fed entirely by oil from the newly-launched Agadem oilfield, a further 700 km east.
It will initially draw crude from three Agadem wells with reserves totalling 480 million barrels. Local consumption of refined products accounts for 7,000 barrels a day with plans to export the rest.
The refinery is 60 percent-owned by Chinese state oil company CNPC and 40 percent by Niger. It follows a $5 billion deal signed between the two in 2008 to concurrently build the plant and develop crude oil from Agadem.
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Imaging! importing fuel from Niger republic? that is a big slap on our selfish, incompetent and unsincere leader's face. when they are busy looting public funds, engaging in several corrupt acts, destroying instead of rebuilding our economy, chasing away investors, failing to tackle insecurity and distabilizing the country, other smaller countries are busy getting developed and we are now benefiting from them. what a shame! where are we heading?
ReplyDeletetoo bad oooooooooo,things fall apart,centre difficult to hold.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience of our President, i strongly believe he really wanted to serve this country and makes history. But unfortunately he fell into wrong and evil hands.
ReplyDeleteI based my point on his first action he took after he was confirmed acting president of this country. But he wanted to work before he was told by those devils among us that he must stop thinking of good things for Nigeria.
Mr. President, exposed those devils to save and that of your family before it is too late! We have some Nigerians that are ready to die for our dear country. I am sure they join hands with you as they did when you were forced to announce removal of oil subsidy.
Things are going this bad becous same former leaders who made their money in this nation through looting,turned araund and are using the money to Import arms against the same nation.Becouse they are aggrieved that power has been taken away from them.What a mercyfull GOD we serve,
ReplyDeletewell the breeze had blown and we can now see that we are deceiving ourselves well there is a yoruba parable that says that if the person you are deceiving do not know at least you the deceiver will know that you're nothing but playing with time "we are only wasting our time and are leaders are the greatest time wasters indeed they need deliverance fom the demon of wastage that is destroying this nation we are just big for nothing and a sounding drum"
ReplyDelete