Five vessels each laden with 15,000 metric tonnes (about 20 million litres) of premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol are being held on the high seas pending when the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) secures clearance from the Federal Government for them to discharge their products.
Consequently, importers of the consignment are incurring demurrage of $15,000 each vessel per day.
Explaining the situation, an officer of ministry of petroleum who spoke to Business Day, said that following the problems created by the importation of PMS heavily laden with ethanol earlier in the year, a presidential committee was set up to look into the problem of imported fuel containing high levels of ethanol had recommended five percent ethanol content in imported fuel which the Federal Government accepted.
But the DPR had recommended that due to the absence of readily available scientific equipment for ascertaining the quality of imported fuel, zero tolerance of ethanol should be adopted.
The government had accepted the DPR recommendation of zero tolerance before making the new position known to the companies most of whom had placed order for products with ethanol content of various degrees.
The ministry source told BusinessDay that they are disposed towards creating a window for the imported products with limited ethanol content since their order was placed before the zero level was adopted by the Federal Government. As a result, representations are being made to the presidency to grant concession for such consignments.
This emerged as the DPR has sealed up a tank farm belonging to a major marketer for allegedly containing PMS with three percent ethanol.
The agency had embarked on routine checks of imported products and quarantined a tank farm of petroleum products with three percent ethanol.
A source at DPR told BusinessDay that the PMS had already been discharged from the vessel before the fuel was quarantined.
He debunked insinuations that the agency was holding five vessels loaded with imported PMS that contains three percent ethanol.
According to him, other facilities that contain product with 1 – 2 percent ethanol were allowed to load since the initial approval by government was five percent ethanol.
Few months back, the agency banned Gunvor International Limited of Amsterdam from importing petroleum products into the country following the company�s importation of PMS with 20 percent ethanol.
The company imported contaminated product and supplied it to some major marketers in the country.
The major marketer that received the product from the company was also sanctioned for dispensing contaminated fuel to motorists in Lagos area.
The company paid a fine to the tune of the value of the imported products and was also directed to compensate all the motorists whose vehicles were damaged by the contaminated fuel.
DPR also withdrew 14,000 metric tonnes of the contaminated product from circulation.
The unfortunate incident was blamed on the situation where all sorts of blended products were allowed into the country, a development attributed to the problems at the refineries.
Blended fuel constituted 85 percent of products imported into the country and analysts say the figure would have been around the acceptable level of 20 percent if the refineries were working.
The contaminated fuel contained 20 percent ethanol, against normal five percent then allowed for Nigeria vehicles.
DPR was unable to detect and intercept the contaminated fuel due to absence of laboratories.