Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report
Available records now shows
that Nigeria is the second largest importer of kerosene in 2015 from the United States.
Record released by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Energy Department said, Nigeria, the Africa’s biggest crude oil producer also took in the third-largest volume of the US jet fuel in 2015.
According to the report, Nigeria imported 1.25 million barrels of the US kerosene from January to December last year.
Other products imported from the US by Nigeria included Liquefied Petroleum Gas, lubricants, Petroleum coke, fuel ethanol and finished motor gasoline.
Nigeria imported 1.72 million barrels of the LPG, 290,000 barrels of lubricants, 121,000 barrels of Petroleum Coke, 161,000 barrels of fuel ethanol and 616,000 barrels of finished motor gasoline, the EIA data showed.
Nigeria depends largely on importation to meet its domestic fuel demand, creating a lucrative market for refiners in the US, Europe and other African countries such as Cameroun and Cote d’Ivorie.
The nation’s four refineries have, over the years, operated a less than their combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.
NNPC announced a shutdown of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries in January, owing to challenges arising from the vandalism of vital crude pipelines.
OPEC nations had in 2015 World Oil Outlook released in December highlighted the need for more refining facilities in Nigeria and other African countries to meet their growing demand for petroleum products.
“Africa is well positioned for downstream capacity addictions currently, the region imports around 30 per cent of the refined products it consumes. This makes it, in relative terms, by far the largest net product-importing region” it said.