For the past few days, queues have been showing up at petrol stations in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and other states in Nigeria. A situation caused by the detection and withdrawal of adulterated gasoline from circulation last week. Adulterated fuel imported from Antwerp in Belgium by 4 importers.

Since Monday, February 14, 2022, it is no longer easy to obtain adulterated gasoline on the displays installed near the tracks in Cotonou (Benin). The price of a liter of smuggled gasoline has, in fact, undergone a large increase. A situation which is the direct consequence of the detection and removal of adulterated gasoline in service stations in Nigeria.

Adulterated gasoline imported from Belgium

According to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the problem that has led to the fuel shortage and the appearance of queues in Abuja, Lagos and several other states in Nigeria is the detection of adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also called gasoline, at fuel outlets. This is how, according to an investigation by the Daily Trust, the adulterated fuel made its way across the country.

After the unfortunate discovery, the authorities in charge of the management of petroleum resources indicated that the federal government had ordered a major investigation to elucidate the circumstances limiting the importation and supply of the adulterated product. According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, the adulterated fuel was imported into the country by 4 importers from Antwerp in Belgium, as quality inspectors failed to detect the high level of methanol it contained. contained, first at the point of importation in Belgium, then at the point of arrival in Nigeria.

The boss of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the national oil company of Nigeria, who did not give the date of the import, observed revealed that the NNPC discovered the situation at the end of January following a report received from their quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS shipments shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium. He said the NNPC investigation revealed the presence of methanol in 4 shipments of PMS imported by MRS, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, Oando and Duke Oil. According to the Nigerian government, the usual quality inspection protocol used in both the port of loading in Belgium and the ports of discharge in Nigeria does not include testing for the percentage methanol content and, therefore, the additive was not detected by quality inspectors, neither upstream nor downstream.

The Nigerian Oil Sector and Corruption
This situation in Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa, illustrates the ignominious failure of the African giant to manage the oil sector. However, President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to restore order to the oil sector in Nigeria, Africa’s leading crude oil producer, and clean it of this “cancer”.

Worse, the West African giant has very few refineries and must re-import almost all of the tens of millions of liters of gasoline for the consumption of its 180 million inhabitants. Faced with this aberration, the government bears a large part of the distribution costs allowing consumers, who are above all voters, to buy their gasoline at 145 naira per liter (200 CFA francs, half the price in Benin neighbor). Hence the gasoline smuggling network to Benin.

Despite the Buhari administration’s promises for more transparency in NNPC’s operations, the oil sector still remains opaque. After the discovery last week of the wrong imported fuel, members of the Nigerian House of Representatives called for the immediate suspension of the four companies involved. But nothing will be done.