Nigeria’s petroleum regulator has denied that the country’s national petroleum company (NNPC) has issued Dangote Group a licence to import fuel.

Farouk Ahmed, CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), explained that the NNPC “has no mandate to issue import permits to any organisation, entity or company”.

Speaking from the state house in Abuja, Ahmed said: “It is the sole responsibility of [NMDPRA] to issue import permits for [petrol], so the notion that NNPC issued out a permit to Dangote Refinery for importation is not true. They don’t have the legal backing to do so.”

Ahmed added that this only referred to July’s imports and that a deal could be worked out in the future. He also addressed rumours that only three companies’ import deals had been approved for July.

“The notion was that NMPDRA only issued permits to three importers. That is not so. As of this morning, for the month of July, we have received and cleared six companies that have expressed interest and have vessels offshore,” he clarified, and said, “maybe, by the time I get back to the office, there might be more”.

The six that were confirmed came from a group of 22–23 companies that had expressed interest in importing oil in July. Ahmed confirmed that some of these may still be approved between now and the end of June.

Ahmed also stated to the press that there would be no gap in supply for July as the NNPC has 30 days of sufficiency in oil, 14–15 days of which is already on land. NNPC is the provider of last resort for fuel in the country, and Ahmed argued that the six imports confirmed for July could see its burden reduced under the law. 

Nigeria’s consumer watchdog, the FCCPC (Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission), states that no company’s market share can go above 40% to avoid monopoly power.