Energy
Nigeria’s Port Harcourt Refinery Ships First Low-Sulfur Fuel to Dubai
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has commenced the exportation of low-sulfur straight-run fuel oil (LSSR) from the country’s refinery in Port Harcourt to Dubai.
The petroleum product, which is expected to arrive in Dubai soon, will be delivered to Gulf Transport & Trading Limited (GTT), a leading energy company in Africa.
For GTT, this low-sulfur petrol, which will be loaded onto the Wonder Star MR1 ship, marks the first delivery to the facility, signaling the commencement of operations at the plant.
According to reports, the petroleum company will take delivery of 15,000 metric tons of the product, equivalent to about 13.6 million liters.
Although the volume of sulfur petrol exported by NNPC from the PH Refinery to the global market remains low, this latest development is expected to help the NNPC tap into the global market and impact the Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) benchmarks in the future.
While NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye has yet to confirm or deny the sale of this product, reports available to Investors King suggest that, “The sulfur content of the export by NNPC stands at 0.26 percent per wt and a 0.918 g/ml density at 15°C, and was sold at an $8.50/t discount to the NWE 0.5 percent benchmark on a Free on Board (FOB) basis.”
Emphasizing the importance of the export, the report added, “This development would help displace imports from traditional suppliers in Africa and Europe, as Nigeria’s falling clean product (CPP) imports are already decreasing, which in turn is reducing imports into the wider West Africa region.”
This development follows reports of a major technical setback at the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC), which led to the scaling down of operations.
Clarifying reports alleging that operations at the Port Harcourt Refinery were halted, the executive director of operations at Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company Limited, Moyi Maidunama, who spoke during a tour of the refinery, explained that operations were scaled down to address technical issues in the facility.
He revealed that the company has the situation under control and assured a speedy resumption of operations at the refinery.
“The operations were not halted. They were reduced due to improvements that we needed to make. We are managing the process with the number of trucks available today, using a few loading arms for evacuation. This should be resolved soon,” the executive director remarked.