Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has yet again assured Nigerians of his refinery’s ability to deliver sufficient fuel locally, while urging the government to maintain consistent crude oil availability at its Lekki facility.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, seen on the Punch, Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, said that the refinery is running out of vital goods like aviation fuel and diesel, while having a surplus of petrol.

“The demand is so high, I can tell you for nothing. Today, we have almost sold out our jet fuel. We have almost sold out our gas oil. What we have is just the gasoline (petrol), which is the PMS; we call it Premium Motor Spirit. That’s the only one that we have in excess,” Aliko Dangote said.

Global supply problems caused by continued tensions with Iran have boosted reliance on the 650,000 barrel-per-day plant, notably among African countries looking for alternative sources of refined petroleum products.

At the same time, reports have surfaced indicating that the refinery, largely recognized as Africa’s largest, may be considering exporting a considerable amount of its petrol. Such a move could have major consequences for Nigeria’s domestic energy sector.

According to sources acquainted with the matter, this probable shift is related to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s rumoured plans to resume giving fuel import licences to marketers. The agency frequently denied these allegations, up until last week when the Nigerian government issued six new licences for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).

In addition to this debacle, the CEO of the Dangote Refinery, David Bird, revealed that the naira-for-crude inefficiency has reduced prospective profits.

“What we see under that agreement, we should be getting about 13 to 15 cargoes a month. And that’s what we could process to meet the domestic fuel requirements of Nigeria. Currently, we’re only getting five. So, that’s an underperformance against that pre-agreed volume contract,” the CEO of the refinery stated.

Earlier promise by Aliko Dangote

However, much like Dangote’s recent promise, the refinery has always maintained that it has the capacity to supply the Nigerian market adequately.

Earlier in March, as geopolitical tensions grew in the Middle East, the Dangote refinery promised to assist Nigeria weather rising global petroleum prices. At the time, the Nigerian government had suspended all importation licenses.

As a result, local supply met roughly 92% of Nigeria’s fuel demand in February. However, overall petrol availability fell sharply, from 64.9 million liters per day in January to 39.6 million litres per day the following month.