From Victor Osula, Abuja
Documents available to THISAGE have confirmed earlier reports by BusinessDay and The Cable how Matrix Energy imports substandard petroleum products, including Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), diesel and Jet A-1 fuel, from Russia and Malta into Nigeria.
The company which is owned by businessman Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, a member of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC), has three old ships (Matrix Pride, Matrix Triumph, and Matrix S.ILU), with which it loads low-quality petroleum products from Russia to Malta for blending before being shipped to Nigeria and sold to the unsuspecting public.
Using a barely known shell company, Poly Pro Trading DMCC, a company which Aliu controls, these latest off-specification petrol (over 200m litres) were shipped on a vessel called ROMEOS from Malta to Nigeria via a Bill of Lading as shown above and dated July 14, 2024.
The products, which arrived in Nigeria on August 3, 2024, were discharged into a Pinnacle facility at Lekki, according to a Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) as shown in the same documents
Recall that amid the controversy between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, a test supervised by members of the House of Representatives on diesel from the Dangote Refinery and those imported into the country by Matrix Energy revealed that the latter’s products had excessive sulphur levels.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, had also alleged that a cabal in the oil sector had commissioned blending plants and terminals in Malta for the shady dealings.
Available records also detailed how Nigeria’s petroleum importation from Malta surged significantly to $2.8bn as against zero between 2017 and 2022, and a mere $13.32m in 2016.
