PPPRA issues permits to import 600,000mt of petrol for October

“The supplementary allocation was approved last week and it will be just for the month of October,” a PPRA source said. Import permits for October were also issued in the June-July period, but the total volume of those allocations is unclear.
Another PPRA source said the supplementary allocations would serve as a stop-gap measure while the agency awaits final approval from the oil ministry for Q4 allocations.
Nigeria typically imports around 1 million mt of gasoline each month.
With the latest permits, local trading companies Oando, Conoil, Aiteo, NIPCO and Folawiyo Petroleum, each got allocations to import 90,000 mt of gasoline in October, the source said, adding that other small fuel marketers got permits to import 45,000 mt of gasoline each.
Africa’s top crude oil producer usually aims at building gasoline stocks to the equivalent of 30 days’ consumption to prevent shortages. But domestic fuel supplies have dropped following declining capacity utilization at the four state-owned refineries.
Data released last week by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation showed that the ailing refineries had operated at an average of 10.5% of their combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 b/d in June this year. Only three of the four refineries – the two in Port Harcourt and one in Warri – operated in June, NNPC data showed. (PLATTS)