Oil marketers are still importing and distributing the product in Nigeria, although there are two major refineries in the country.

Reports indicated that oil marketers imported 2.3 billion litres of petrol between September 11 and December 5, 2024.

Recall that oil marketers had earlier stated they will halt importing fuel and patronise local refineries.

The local refineries are the 650,000 barrel per day capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery located in Lagos and the 210,000bpd capacity Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.

The Dangote refinery started selling petrol in September, while the Area 5 facility of the Port Harcourt refinery started operations last Tuesday.

Despite this, in the past three days alone, a total of 52,000 metric tonnes of petrol were brought into the country.

About 1322.76 litres of petrol weighs one metric tonne. This implies that 68.74 million litres of imported fuel was brought in by dealers in three days.

For decades, Nigeria depended on the import of petroleum products to meet local demands. The situation remained even after the commencement of production by the Dangote refinery in September because of its price and insufficient output. During this period, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was the sole off-taker from the refinery.

FG later in a statement from the finance ministry on October 11, 2024, announced that oil marketers were now free to negotiate the purchase of petrol directly from the Dangote refinery without recourse to NNPC.

This allowed for direct negotiations. Already the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has signed an agreement with the refinery for product offtake, with negotiations ongoing with the Petroleum Products Retails Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria.

Amid these, oil marketers promised to stop fuel import and focus solely on domestic supply.