The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria has faulted claims that imported petroleum products are cheaper than locally refined fuels, arguing that price differences stem from quality disparities and not efficiency, while accusing the World Bank of failing to make a like-for-like comparison.
The association’s Publicity Secretary, Eche Idoko, who spoke in an interview, said local refineries were disadvantaged by premium crude pricing and unfair benchmarking against blended imported products.
In a now-deleted report, the World Bank Group had stated that Dangote’s petrol price was higher than imported ones, asking the Federal Government to allow fuel importation. Reacting in an interview with our correspondent, Idoko maintained that the World Bank was not fair with his comparison.
According to him, petroleum products imported into Nigeria are blended and are of low quality compared to locally produced ones.
He added that many imported fuels were blended to meet minimum regulatory specifications, making them cheaper but not directly comparable to fully refined local products.
“What is the quality, what is the process of producing some of these imported products? Some of the products that have been imported are blended products that are coming from Kazakhstan and the Far Eastern European countries. They blend just to get the parameters that they need in this country. And then they bring it in.
“In terms of quality, they would not compete with the quality that we produce from our refineries here. And of course, it also dovetails with the fact that blending is cheaper than refining. So, those are factors that would make those prices cheaper,” he stated.