The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not import Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) in June, a development that may have triggered scarcity of the product and price increase nationwide, Daily Trust reports.
The Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the fuel marketing arm of the NNPC, had been the major importer of the product with most independent marketers depending on PPMC’s depots for kerosene. However, since the deregulation of the kerosene market, the PPMC has drastically reduced imports leaving major marketers to bridge the shortfall. But the scarcity of foreign exchange (forex) has prevented marketers from importing the product.
NNPC in its June operations report said it imported 1.1 billion litres of PMS or petrol only but zero litre of kerosene in the month. The corporation, according to the report, relied on domestic production of 119.5 million litres from the refineries to wet the market. Although the 119.5m litres production from the refineries indicated an increase from May’s production of 38.8m litres, it was grossly inadequate to satisfy around 11million litres of daily kerosene demand in Nigeria.