• CPPE seeks tighter import controls as petrol inflows jump 234% in 60 days
• Reps c’ttee told to allow NNPCL fix state-owned refineries

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is considering restricting sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to major marketers that continue to import petrol into Nigeria, amid concerns over product quality, market transparency and the integrity of products supplied under the Dangote brand.

However, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, has called on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to tie petroleum product import approvals to transparently verified domestic supply gaps, following a sharp rise in petrol imports despite growing domestic refining capacity.

Meanwhile, a public affairs analyst, Mustapha Mohammed, has urged the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Downstream Petroleum, Ikenga Ugochinyere, to allow the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to fix the Port Harcourt and other state-owned refineries.

Dangote’s proposed measure, which could take effect this week, subject to further consultations and any last-minute intervention, reflects growing concerns over the continued entry of imported PMS into a market with substantial domestic refining capacity.

Sources familiar with the refinery’s position said the immediate concern is that some marketers were blending substandard imported PMS with products purchased from the Dangote Refinery before distributing them to the market. The refinery is concerned that such practices could make it difficult to distinguish between products supplied directly by the refinery and products subsequently blended or handled by third parties.

“It is difficult to understand why we would invest heavily in producing high-quality petroleum products for Nigerians, only for those products to be mixed with imported products of uncertain quality and the resulting product to be associated with the refinery,” a source familiar with the refinery’s position said.

The refinery has also raised concerns about the regulator’s lack of a standard laboratory and quality control infrastructure for imported petroleum products, particularly the capacity to independently verify and certify the specifications of products entering the Nigerian market.

The concerns come as Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector undergoes a structural transition from longstanding import dependence towards greater domestic refining. With a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has emerged as a major supplier of refined petroleum products to both the Nigerian and international markets, meeting internationally recognised quality specifications.

The United States Energy Information Administration (U.S.-EIA) recently identified the Dangote refinery as a major factor behind the sharp increase in Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum product exports. Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum product shipments averaged 561,000 barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, compared with a yearly average of 79,000 barrels per day in 2023.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s jet fuel has emerged as a preferred choice in the global market, including across U.S. and Europe, where it has cemented its position as Europe’s largest external supplier of jet fuel for months, surpassing traditional exporters from the U.S. and the Middle East.

IN a policy brief issued yesterday, the CPPE boss said average Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) imports rose from 5.9 million litres per day in May this year to 18.1 million litres per day in June, representing a 206.8 per cent increase, before rising further to 19.7 million litres daily in July.

This increase, he said, pushed the import share of total PMS receipts from 12.4 per cent in May to 35.8 per cent in June and 43.3 per cent in July.

Domestic PMS supply, meanwhile, declined from 41.5 million litres daily in May to 32.5 million litres in June and 25.8 million litres in July, according to NMDPRA statistics.

In the brief entitled ‘Rising Petroleum-Product Imports and the Future of Domestic Refining’, Yusuf said petroleum product imports should serve as a transparent supply-gap instrument rather than operate as a parallel market that displaces adequate domestic production.

He argued that where local refiners could supply products of acceptable quality and quantity at competitive market prices, indiscriminate import licensing could weaken investment, jobs, foreign exchange conservation, industrialisation and national energy security.

Stressing that he does not oppose imports required to address genuine and independently verified shortfalls, he noted that imports remain necessary during refinery outages, seasonal demand spikes, quality gaps, and strategic stock replenishment.

However, he expressed concern over import permits issued without a transparent demonstration that domestic refiners could not meet demand at acceptable standards and competitive market terms.

According to him, Sections 317(8) and (9) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA)contemplate petroleum product import licensing in the context of domestic supply shortfalls. He added that the NMDPRA should, therefore, publish a product-by-product supply-gap determination before approving significant import volumes, give qualified domestic refiners a fair opportunity to meet verified demand and restrict import permits to quantified residual gaps for defined periods.

Calling for the publication of monthly data on permits, product landings and domestic evacuation, he said: “This is not a call for monopoly or blanket protection; it is a call for systematic, rules-based regulation that makes competition fair, protects consumers and supports domestic productive capacity.”

He further noted that the import surge occurred alongside evidence of substantial domestic refining capability, adding that Dangote Refinery reported a test run above 700,000 barrels per day in June, while NMDPRA had reported domestic refineries operating at 99.12 per cent average capacity utilisation in April.

He added that Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum product exports had risen strongly, indicating that aggregate refining capability was no longer the constraint it once was.

Arguing that a deregulated market did not mean regulatory indifference to the structure of supply, he warned that where domestic supply was adequate, import permits could suppress refinery off-take, weaken utilisation rates, and shift demand, income, and employment abroad.

He called on the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to curb monopolistic pricing and abuse of market dominance. He also recommended an industrialisation impact test for major import policy decisions, assessing their effects on refinery utilisation, employment, foreign exchange, investment, supplier development, consumer prices and energy security.

IN a statement yesterday, Mohammed urged the lawmaker to stop politicising the rehabilitation of the country’s refineries.

Ugochinyere had vowed to invoke parliamentary powers to demand answers from the CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Ojulari, and the Executive Vice President over details concerning the rehabilitation of the state-owned refineries.

Reacting, Mohammed said: “Ugochinyere and his sponsors should allow the refineries to be fixed. The NNPCL is executing a deliberate Federal Government policy to revive the refineries, and there has been no breach of any legislation by the National Assembly or any of its committees.

“What is required at this point is to allow the process to work rather than create unnecessary controversy around an intervention that is already being implemented.”

He added that accusing the NNPCL of withholding information on the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries “is a back-end tactic by the same agents using cheap gimmicks to create the impression that the government is not doing anything.”

Mohammed said the government’s refinery rehabilitation programme should be judged by its progress and eventual outcomes rather than political rhetoric.