Nigeria’s petrol supply fell sharply in September. Average daily supply dropped 23.4 percent to 38.7 million litres from 50.5 million litres in August, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority said in its September report, as deliveries from domestic refineries fell 21 percent and imports fell 30 percent with approved import permit volumes being exhausted.
Crude deliveries to Nigerian refineries fell with it. Refineries received 15.97 million barrels in September, down 6.3 percent from 17.05 million barrels in August, and average crude receipts eased from about 681,000 barrels a day to about 618,000 barrels a day. Between January and September, refineries received 156.51 million barrels in total, of which domestic crude supplied 125.85 million barrels, or 80.4 percent, and imports supplied the rest.
Domestic refineries still carried the market. They supplied about 73.6 percent of petrol receipts in September against 26.4 percent from imports, and across the 13 months to September they averaged 30.4 million litres a day, or 61.2 percent of supply. The Dangote refinery operated at 105.98 percent utilisation in September, processing about 689,000 barrels a day against average receipts of 618,000 barrels a day across the sector, while the state owned refineries at Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna produced no petrol in the month.
September supply was also below the 13 month average of 49.7 million litres a day, and average petrol stock cover was reported at 23.9 days, below the 30 day requirement cited in the reporting. The regulator attributed the fall to the combination of lower local refinery supply and the import permit exhaustion, which is why the September squeeze is an administrative and feedstock story as much as a refining capacity story.