Nigeria imported $2.25bn fuel from Malta – Reports claim

The saga between billionaire Dangote and the NNPC has led to the revelation of this reports.

Indications have emerged that Nigeria imported fuel worth $2.25bn from Malta in nine years, a few days after the CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote alleged that some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) have blended plants in Malta.

According to some information revealed by Trade Map, Nigeria imported petroleum oils obtained from bituminous minerals worth $2.8bn in 2023, jumping by a 342 percent increase from $47.5m in 2013.

The report also showed that there was no fuel importation from Malta to Nigeria from 2017 to 2022. However, there was a significant leap in 2023 when Nigeria imported fuel worth $2.08bn.

This report comes few days after Africa’s richest man, Dangote alleged that some NNPC personnel own blending plants in Malta amid the crisis surrounding his $20bn refinery.

Dangote said, “Some of the terminals, some of the NNPC people, and some traders have opened blending plants somewhere off Malta. We all know these areas. We know what they are doing.”

But the Group CEO of the NNPC, Mele Kyari has debunked those claims, denying he owns a blending plant outside Nigeria.

He said that since Dangote’s revelation, he has been bombarded with calls from family members and friends, asking if he truly owned a blending plant in the european country.

The NNPC chief said he does not own any business outside the country directly or by proxy anywhere in the world, except for a local mini-agric venture.

He also said that he is not aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operate a blending plant outside Nigeria.

“I am inundated by enquiries from family members, friends, and associates on the public declaration by the President of Dangote Group that some NNPC workers have established a blending plant in Malta, thereby impeding procurements from local production of petroleum products.

“To clarify the allegations regarding the blending plant, I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world except for a local mini-agric venture, neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world,” he said.