Nigeria’s Imported Petrol Dirtier Than Niger Delta Refined Fuel

A new report published by Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), an international resource watchdog group, says refined petroleum products imported into Nigeria contain more pollutants than those refined by black market operators in the Niger Delta.

The organisation said it carried out laboratory analysis of fuel samples collected from 45 government-licensed filling stations and unofficial (46) fuel selling points in Lagos, Rivers and Bayelsa.

The report was titled Dirty Fuel: An analysis of official and unofficial petroleum products in the Niger Delta.

The official samples from Lagos were said to have been collected from filling stations close to the port on the assumption that it would be “most likely to be a true representation of imported refined products”.

Laboratory results were reported to have shown that the average official diesel sample contained 204 times more fuel sulphur than the European Union fuel standards and the petrol contained 43 times more sulphur.

However, unofficial diesel samples contained 152 times more fuel sulphur than the EU standard and the black market petrol contained 40 times more sulphur than the EU standard.

In the case of kerosine, official samples were reported to have higher standards than unofficial samples.

However, the demand for kerosine from unofficial refiners was attributed to the household use of the commodity.

Consumers were reported to have shown a tolerance for lower kerosine when official sources run out of the product.

“Our research suggests that Nigeria is having dirty fuel dumped on it that cannot be sold to other countries with higher and better-implemented standards,” the UK Guardian quoted Florence Kayemba, SDN programme manager, to have said.

“The situation is so bad that the average diesel sampled are of an even lower quality than that produced by artisanal refining camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta.”

The resultant effect of this is that vehicles have a higher risk of having fuel injector damage, poor engine performance and higher pollutant emissions that increase the rate of environmental pollution.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been the major importer of petrol after the federal government said it would no longer pay importers to subsidise petrol.

Seeing as the landing cost of petrol was higher than the recommended retail price, the NNPC began to absorb the difference as under-recovery.

However, the federal government is now taking steps to fully deregulate the sector saying the price of petrol will be adjusted monthly to reflect market realities.

Nigeria has to import refined petroleum products because the refineries have been non-functional for an extended period.

An October 2019 investigation by TheCable detailed the activities of oil thieves from the diversion of crude oil from the nation’s pipelines to their illegal refineries with the knowledge of security operatives.

Source: TheCable