Africa's largest oil exporter spent $5.8 billion to import fuel to combat domestic shortage

godfred akoto

February 21, 2018 7:46 AM

Nigeria has faced domestic fuel shortages,leading to increased political pressure on president Buhari

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation spent $5.8 billion on fuel imports to combat fuel shortages in Africa's largest exporter of oil since 2017.

“The corporation’s intervention became necessary following the inability of the major and independent marketers to import the product because of the high landing cost which made cost recovery and profitability difficult,” the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in a statement.

With a price cap in place, importers in the country say they struggle to remain solvent leaving the NNPC as the most reliable fall back. Refineries in the country are also producing below capacity with all hopes now banked on Aliko Dangote's soon to be completed refinery.

Currently being constructed on a 2, 200 hectares at the Lekki Free Trade zone in Lagos, it is tipped to become the single largest train petroleum refinery in the world.

It will refine 650,000 barrels of crude per day, and a petrochemical plant of 750,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per annum. It is also projected to have 1.5 times more capacity than the existing four oil refineries in the country, even if they are operating at 100 per cent.

godfred akoto