On Monday, February 7, Nigerians woke up to the reality that some quantity of methanol-blended petrol was in the country.
The product, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd was imported into the country by four oil marketers through four Premium Motor Spirit cargoes under the NNPC’s Direct Sales Direct Purchase arrangement.
The DSDP is part of measures by the NNPC to ensure sustained supply of petroleum products in the country.
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The DSDP is an arrangement that allows the NNPC to deliver monthly crude oil lifting on Free on Board (FOB) basis to supplier who shall in return, deliver petroleum products of Nigerian standard specification to NNPC on Delivered at Place (DAP) basis, at designated safe port (s) in Nigeria.
According to the NNPC, the four companies that supplied the methanol blended petrol are MRS which made the importation through a vessel named MT Bow Pioneer, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium through vessel identified as MT Tom Hilde, Oando through a vessel named MT Elka Apollon, and Duke Oil.
The product was purchased from International Trader, LITASCO and delivered through the LITASCO loading port terminal in Antwerp in Belgium.
THE WHISTLER had reported that immediately the discovery was made, the NNPC quickly stopped oil marketers from distributing the petrol.
The NNPC intervened by ensuring that the methanol blended petrol do not get to the filling stations.
In achieving this, the NNPC made sure that all the cargoes that were suspected to have methanol were quarantined.
Similarly, those cargoes that have been discharged were also quarantined, while all the trucks that have left the depots were tracked and intercepted.
The NNPC also restocked the depot with more cleaner fuels and has also sent officials to inspect all the filling stations to ensure that do not have the petrol that have excessive methanol.
In addition, the NNPC also intensified efforts at increasing the supply of petrol into the market in order to bridge any unforeseen supply gap.
Who is LITASCO?
Findings revealed that LITASCO was founded in 2000 in Switzerland and it is the exclusive international marketing and trading company of LUKOIL Oil Company.
With head office in Geneva, LITASCO Group has established additional trading and business development offices worldwide, extending its reach around the world from the United States to Europe, the Middle East and Asia, managing LUKOIL’s global crude oil and petroleum products supply, marketing and trading needs.
LITASCO has affiliates in Kazakhstan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, the Netherlands as well as representative offices in Hong Kong, in Russia and in India.
LITASCO Group is one of the world’s major traders of crude oil and refined petroleum products and deals with a vast range of suppliers and customers, including all of the world’s major oil corporations.
In 2019, the LITASCO Group traded over 103 million metric tons of crude oil and 84 million metric tons of petroleum products.
The total volume of physical barrels handled was 3.8 million barrel per day.
LUKOIL system volumes marketing accounted for 37 per cent of and third-party trading activity represented 63 per cent of LITASCO’s total transactions
Third party trading activity allows LITASCO to increase the efficiency of LUKOIL’s oil and petroleum products export and enables our parent company to further expand its international operations.
LITASCO Group currently employs over 450 staff globally.
LITASCO’s Past Links With ‘Dirty Fuel’
In September 2016, Public Eye’s investigation on “Dirty Diesel” uncovered the business model of sending low-quality and harmful fuels to Africa.
According to reports, the Dutch government was forced to promise the legislature a report in which the environment inspectors confirmed the role played by Swiss commodities trading firms.
It was revealed that Vitol, Gunvor, Litasco as well as other companies, deliberately and systematically use toxic “blend stocks” in the mixing of fuels.
Starting in 2017, ILT researched the loading of 44 tankers destined for West Africa. It found diesel with 300 times more sulfur and twice as many cancer-causing hydrocarbons as are allowed in Europe.
The gasoline contained elements high in sulfur as well as cancer-causing substances like manganese, in concentrations up to 30 times over the European limit.
The report concluded that the concerned companies either ignored or were unaware of the European regulation for chemical substances and the Dutch law. The environment inspector also investigated fuel oil for sea-going vessels and found products from two commodities trading firms that are categorized as illegal waste.
These results show that West African countries like Nigeria, where the implementation of stricter gasoline standards has been blocked for months, must urgently enact the standards, to protect their people from such toxic cocktails.
A further investigation is in progress to determine if “Dirty Diesel” companies are violating the OECD guidelines for multinational corporations.
Meanwhile, reports said that in Switzerland, where the concerned corporations have their headquarters, there has so far been no political response to the scandal, not to mention an investigation.
Reports say this inaction by the authorities to a flagrant violation of the right to health of people in African countries is another example why the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative is necessary.