An indigenous oil and gas firm, Pinnacle Oil and Gas FZE (POGFZE), yesterday said importation of fuel is not tantamount to bringing substandard or off-spec products.
MD/CEO of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd, Robert Dickerman, at a media briefing yesterday also declared the support of the firm to local refining, referring specifically to Dangote Refinery as a fantastic project for Nigeria.
He spoke against the backdrop of the recent controversy with Dangote Refinery accusing the company of importing off-sec products.
Dangote Refinery also recently declared that while it supports competition, it would not allow continued importation of petroleum products.
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At the briefing yesterday, Dickerman explained that with the strict regulation that is in place, it is impossible for any marketer to bring off-spec products into the country.
He stated that when a marketer brings in a product, especially gasoline also known as premium motor spirit (PMS), the product comes with a certificate of quality and then there are independent inspectors that would be appointed to be sure the product is on-spec.
“It is illegal, we will never try it and that is not our style,” he stated, adding, “It is strictly regulated.”
The MD also reiterated that the company is not in the business of blending of petroleum products but in the distribution business.
He explained that Pinnacle Oil & Gas built a revolutionary terminal at Lekki Free Zone “at great expense for the benefit of far greater efficiency in the distribution of petroleum products throughout Nigeria.”
He stated that before the birth of the terminal, all imported cargoes had to be transferred to smaller vessels due to the shallow draft restrictions across Nigerian ports.
“This extra vessel charter, along with the associated costs of delay, has been inflating the delivered cost for many years.
“With the Pinnacle terminal, full cargoes can offload in less than 40 hours and sail away without any ship-to-ship transfer or delays. This has been working extremely well for the country since operations began in 2021,” he said.
Dickerman explained that to enhance distribution efficiency, the company proposed and invested in pipelines to distribute petroleum products from the Dangote Refinery, as pipeline transfer is far less costly than distribution by ship or trucking across the country.
“When we proposed this project to Dangote, they wholeheartedly agreed and signed a 13-year interconnection agreement with us. In addition, Dangote facilitated our process of achieving regulatory approval by writing two Letters of No Objection to the regulator to enable our project to proceed.
“It is Pinnacle’s firm position, as well as the position of any educated economist or market watcher, that the optimal solution to Nigeria’s energy security and pricing is a market-based solution that encourages all sources of supply, be they from local refineries, imports or any other source.
“These suppliers must adhere to the strict specifications of the market and products must be handled safely. But the consumer should be indifferent to the source of supply, as long as the product is good quality, and the price is the lowest attainable. This solution demands competition,” he said.
While reiterating that “imports do not equate to substandard or off-spec products, and there is no reason to believe that products refined in other countries would be of any lower quality than those refined here,” he stated that the regulator and all market participants work in tandem to ensure that no substandard product is ever delivered to customers.
“We wish the Dangote Refinery well and expect that with all their options for sales and distribution, they will find it simple to compete at market pricing and make a healthy return for their investors. This will encourage further investment in refining, storage and distribution to make Nigeria an efficient global trading hub, and an example for other markets around the world,” he said.
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