Although nearly overshadowed by needless tiffs and brickbats, September 15 turned out to be that historic moment that Nigerians had long hoped, and prayed for: the sight of hundreds of trucks rolling into the gantry of the $20 billion, 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery to lift premium motor spirit, (petrol).Surely, the significance of the moment cannot be overstated. This is a product whose consumption of foreign exchange is put variously at anything between 35 to 40 percent of the nation’s entire foreign exchange outlay. Nigerians will also recall that this is a product over which citizens had for years been locked in combat with the government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) over the question of importation and pricing. That the product is finally coming to join the league of other fuels from the refinery after delays, recriminations, allegations and counter-allegations of sabotage and other institutional challenges; surely, the moment cannot but signal an important step forward in the nation’s long journey towards domestic energy sufficiency.

For plodding on despite the odds, Aliko Dangote, the visioner deserves commendation; no less deserving however is the Federal Government for providing the required fiscal muscle to ensure its realisation.

Yet, as important as this latest milestone is, the road ahead would appear no less bumpy still. As it is, Nigerians’ expectation of immediate reduction in product prices would appear, not only unrealistic, but unlikely to happen anytime soon. Although an interim arrangement is reportedly in place under which the NNPCL would serve as the off-taker of the product, one contentious issue that came up last week was how much the NNPCL actually bought the product from the refinery. Whereas the company claimed to have bought the product at N898 per litre from the refinery, the refinery management on its part had described the claim as ‘misleading and mischievous’, without telling Nigerians its own version of truth, thus leaving Nigerians with wild guesses as to who between the two was not telling the whole truth.

Howbeit, if the forth and back argument is any indication of the government’s resolve to yield the space to the forces of the market, the adjustment in the pump prices that followed would appear to be the final seal. One other issue that also emerged is the capacity of the refinery to meet the needs of the market. Again, whereas Nigerians were led to believe that the refinery would deliver 25 million litres daily to the market, to be raised to 35 million by October, it emerged that it could only deliver 10.3 million litres in the first three days as against 75 million, thus raising fresh fears about its actual readiness to meet market demands. In fact, the situation was said to have heightened concerns about product’s future availability in the situation that NNPCL had banked on the 25 million litres per day supply from the refinery. Nigerians expect that the Dangote Refinery would be more forthcoming on the situation.

In all, it might well be that a number of the challenges that have emerged in the past weeks are not entirely unexpected. Nonetheless, the expectation is that these would be tackled swiftly and decisively. Whether the issue is in the domain of equitable pricing or product supply guarantees, Nigerians, it needs to be said, have certainly gone too far in this journey to contemplate looking back. Just as Nigerians expect Dangote Refinery to step up the game, NNPCL, as the supplier of last resort, owes Nigeria a duty of ensuring product availability, at least until the sector fully stabilises. We expect the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to ensure that every player acts in accordance with the rules. Same with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC); the commission might want to take a more than passing interest in the activities of the disparate actors in the fuel supply chain, given the near limitless capacity for collusion and other anti-competition practices known to exist in the industry. In all, the era of product shortages should be consigned to the past. (The Nation Editorial)