The Punch reports that the Federal Government has issued supplementary import permits to oil marketers for the importation of petrol due to the poor output from the country’s refineries. It was learnt on Monday that the permits were given to marketers last Thursday by the government, which asked them to bring in the product to supplement domestic production. Officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency told our correspondent that the marketers would import over 400,000 metric tonnes of premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol, to augment local production.
It was also learnt that the volume of import was this high because the country’s refineries were still not producing at optimum capacities. An official at the ministry, who pleaded not to be named as he was not authorised to speak on the subject, said:
“The output from our refineries cannot meet national demand and that is why the government had to issue permits to the marketers to make supplementary importation of petrol. Some marketers have started receiving the permits and they started getting it since Thursday.
“You know some of our refineries are performing poorly and this has its effect on the volume of locally refined petroleum products. So, the permit is needed in order to keep the country wet with products for a given period of time.”
Confirming the issuance of the import permits to our correspondent, the spokesperson for the PPPRA, Mr. Lanre Oladele, said:
“It is true. That is all I can tell you for now.”