No fewer than four vessels carrying imported Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, arrived at seaports situated along the nation’s borders between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20, findings by The PUNCH show.
According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority on Sunday, about 123.4 million litres of PMS were berthed at two seaports to improve fuel supply nationwide.
The latest development confirms an exclusive report by The PUNCH, which disclosed that oil dealers intend to import the commodity to supplement the supply from the $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
The dealers had stated that the supply from the Lekki-based plant was currently insufficient to meet domestic demand.
They had alleged that the plant was producing about 10 million litres of petrol daily, as against the 25 million litres that it earlier promised to produce.
In September, The PUNCH also reported that dealers imported about 141 million litres of PMS following a hike in the pump prices of petrol produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
They said the fair market price following the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the government allowed room for PMS imports.