A member of Tinubu’s Presidential Economic Coordination
Council (PECC), Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu has been alleged to be
behind the petrol imports from Malta and Russia.
TheCable, an online publications, reported that Adisa Aliu is
the owner of Matrix Energy, one of the biggest importers of fuel through Malta.
This revelation came in the wake of the statement by chairman of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, who in July made some revelations about the increase in fuel imports from Malta.
In 2023, Nigeria’s petroleum importation from Malta soared to
$2.08 billion, a stark rise from zero between 2017 and 2022, and a modest
$13.32 million in 2016.
Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer (GCEO) of
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), immediately denied Dangote’s
claim, saying he did not have interest in any plant in Malta.
In an interview with TheCable, however, Aliu denied any
wrongdoing in his business practices.
In July 2024 alone, over 200,000 tonnes of petrol from Malta
were discharged into the Matrix jetty in Warri, Delta state, according to an
insider who shared confidential documents with TheCable.
“This represents about 25 percent of Nigeria’s monthly PMS
consumption going to a relatively small player with only 150 retail stations,”
the insider said.
The insider said Aliu is also leveraging his close relations
with the top management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL)
to secure crude oil cargoes from the national oil company for his company.
“Crude cargoes are discretionarily allocated to Matrix Energy
by the NNPC monthly,” the person familiar with the company’s operations said.
The crude allocations to Matrix are traded by Gulf Transport
& Trading (GTT), a trading company registered in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), according to the insider.
“Two of the three crude cargoes of the recently launched
Utapate grade were allocated to GTT,” the source said.
“The crude cargoes are typically sold at a $3 per barrel
premium which translates to $3 million per cargo with no sweat. This implies a
tax-free take of almost $150 million per year or N240 billion, at N1,600/$.”
On August 5, NNPC introduced the Utapate crude oil blend into
the international market.
The new crude oil grade is from an oil mining lease (OML) 13,
fully operated by NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), an upstream
subsidiary of NNPC.
Matrix — which has three old ships (Matrix Pride, Matrix
Triumph, and Matrix S.ILU) — reportedly loads diesel products exported from
Russia in Lome, Togo.
It is understood that the diesel from Russia is typically
off-spec and is often corrected in places like Lome and Malta through blending
with other components.
However, on June 16, about 15,000 tonnes of diesel — loaded on
May 26 from Novorossiysk, Russia, and transported by a vessel, MT Kallos — were
reportedly transloaded into Matrix Triumph offshore Lome without corrections
and discharged into Matrix jetty in Warri, Delta state, Nigeria, on June 21.
On June 19, another 15,000 tonnes were transloaded into Matrix
Pride and then discharged into the Obat Oil terminal on June 22.
In documents seen by TheCable, the products from Malta were
transported through intermediate ships and sometimes through intermediate
companies like Poly Pro Trading registered in Dubai Free Trade Zone.
Their listed office at OneJLT Towers 05.015, Dubai, is a
business centre without any physical presence, according to checks by TheCable.
“Malta is now the top European destination for blending and
ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products
ever since the Greek navy decided to stop such activities in their offshore
zone,” the source said.
“About 35 percent of shipment into Malta is naphtha and other
components which are blended into gasoline to produce lower quality ‘African
Spec’. This lower quality spec is then transhipped into various vessels for
delivery into Nigeria to be sold to unsuspecting public who suffer frequent
vehicle and equipment breakdowns.”
An oil blending plant has no refining capability but can be
used to blend re-refined oil (a used motor oil that has been treated to remove
dirt, fuel, and water) with additives to create finished lubricant products.
(THECABLE)
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