It is still several months away from commencement of crude oi production in Uganda.
But President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has announced the name under which the country’s export crude blend will be called in international energy markets.
“Pearl Sweet” was officially unveiled at a special ceremony at the Kingfisher Development Area marks the point at which Uganda’s crude becomes a recognisable traded product.
International crude oils are bought and sold as identifiable grades, allowing refiners, traders, shipping companies, price-reporting agencies and analysts to recognise their origin and quality and to build pricing histories around them.
Pearl Sweet will give Uganda that market identity for the first time, appearing on cargo documentation, refinery specifications and international trading databases.
Uganda is expected to reach first oil by late 2026, with production anticipated around November at the earliest.
The chosen name for the crude blend deliberately carries both national identity and commodity information. “Pearl” reflects Uganda’s historic title as the ‘Pearl of Africa’, a monicker given to the country by Winston Churchill after he was struck by the country’s exceptional natural beauty and resources.
“Sweet” is a petroleum classification reflecting the crude’s low sulphur content, an important characteristic for refiners seeking lower-sulphur feedstocks. In addition, the blend is considered medium light with an API gravity falling in the 28-31° range. This is a good feature for product yield/value, with a higher API usually meaning more light products and easier refining and a better price.
“What you sow is what you reap”, President Museveni told attendees at the ceremony, recounting that Uganda sought a strategy to domesticate the oil industry. He said the benefits of refining at home included support for the local economy and protection of the environment especially because the government has forbidden flaring of gas, he added, that oil is an finite resource, and its benefit must be for future generations.
“Uganda’s oil journey is anchored on efficiency, responsibility and ensuring that our resources create lasting value for Ugandans”, declared Monica Musenero Masanza, the country’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development. “The naming of Pearl Sweet marks an important step as Uganda prepares to take its place in the international oil market. The progress at Tilenga and Kingfisher shows that we are ready to produce responsibly, safeguard the environment and build an industry whose benefits are felt across the Ugandan economy.”
Dangote Group has presented a proposal to the Cameroonian government, mulling the construction of a petroleum products storage terminal in the country.
The company wants to explore the development of a storage facility that would help build Cameroon’s strategic petroleum reserves and improve the country’s fuel supply security. The project could also include a pipeline network to transport refined products, reducing logistics costs and limiting the environmental impact of road transport.
The project, if approved, will create a new outlet for petroleum products manufactured at the hiuge Lekki refinery in Nigeria . It will also strengthen the company’s presence in Cameroon and across Central Africa.
Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute received the proposal from Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group’s Vice President for Oil, Gas and Fertilizer.
The two did not announce any agreement after the meeting.
No agreement was announced following the meeting. Dangote has yet to disclose the proposed location, storage capacity, investment value, or development timeline. The company has also not indicated whether it intends to own and operate the terminal, partner with a state-owned company, or develop the project through a concession or public-private partnership.
Dangote currently exports gasoline to Cameroon through Neptune Oil , but Cameroon’s National Petroleum Storage Company (SCDP) is the manager of petroleum storage and distribution nationwide, including the government’s strategic fuel reserves.
It is not clear how Dangite’s terminal plans will segue into SCD’s plan for two major fuel storage projects in the port city of Kribi, featuring a petroleum terminal with a planned capacity of 230,000 cubic metres for gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, along with storage for 40,000 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas. The Kribi project looks to doubling SCDP’s current liquid fuel storage capacity to around 490,000 cubic metres, with large boost on domestic LPG storage. A nother 250,000 cubic metre storage project has been earmarked d by CSTAR Tank Farm Project Management, a company owned by Ariana Energy (49%), Tradex (31%), and Cameroon’s National Hydrocarbons Corporation (20%).
A 317 kilometre, six-pipeline infrastructure to ferry crude oil and petroleum products, is in advanced stage of construction in Egypt.
The $128Million project is to bolster transportation capacity between domestic production zones, refineries, and export terminals across the country. This enhancement of the national hydrocarbon grid is expected to come online by early 2027.
The first of pipelines, a $ 21Million, 52kilometre pipeline from Khorshid (east of Alexandria) to Damanhur in the middle of the country’s oil rich western Nile Delta, will be commissioned later this month, August 2026.
In November 2026, the $ 52Million, 135 kilometre pipeline connecting the Midor refinery in Alexandria to the Al Hamra petroleum port in El Alamein on the Mediterranean Sea coast in north-western Egypt, is expected to be commissioned in November 2026. This project bridges a two-way loop that allows Egypt to import crude, refine it domestically at Midor, and pump the higher-value finished products back to Al Hamra for re-export.
The new pipeline system also includes a 75 kilometre long, $ 13Million Phase one of the Tebbin-Assiut line, expected to be delivered by December 2026 A $31Million, 16 kilometre line serving the Assiut Oil Refining Company, also to be commissioned in December 2026.
Two smaller lines around Cairo earmarked for transporting heavily fuel oil (locally known as mazut): a $ 6Million, 20 kilometre line from Mostorod to west Shubra, and a $4.2Million, 19 kilometre route realignment between Mostorod and Tebbin are both expected to be commissioned in early 2027.
Even as the epic transformation of the global economy plays itself out, petroleum products remain the hegemon of all energy sources, at least in the next decade.
So we should welcome a book with the title Dynamics of Petroleum Products Marketing, which, its author says, sets out to provide “a deeper understanding of the petroleum products industry’s role in our world, the ethical principles that should guide its operations, and the importance of sustainable and responsible practices.”
The author comes highly recommended. Okey Billy Okoye, a former Managing Director/CEO of NNPC Retail Limited, who went on to become the Group Executive Director at the mother company, NNPCL, is a professor and coordinator, Oil, Gas & Energy Marketing at the University of Abuja Business School.
The language of the text is simple, lucid and largely self-explanatory. It will be particularly valuable to students and professionals.
Still, a question nags as you work through the book. How far does Dynamics go to meet its objective of providing “a deeper understanding of the petroleum products industry’s role in our world, the ethical principles that should guide its operations..” This book would naturally be expected to deliver more than definitions of concepts and the academic explanation of operations and practices in the petroleum industry; it would be expected to more practical examples in the Nigerian context, more illustrations and data than it does. And the author would be expected to provide some of his personal experiences as an executive in the industry.
Dynamics takes off with a comprehensive discussion of the petroleum products value chain in Chapter 1.
The chapter on storage depots exhaustively explores Nigeria’s petroleum storage infrastructure on paper, but it fails to give an update on the availability of the storage facilities. It says there are depots in Mosimi, Enugu, Ibadan, Kaduna, and various cities across the six geopolitical zones of this country. It does not tell us, how many of them are functioning or were functioning at the time of completion of the book. It avoids retailing information on the capacity of each depot, and their supply networks. Not answering these questions as an authority leaves room for assumptions, and insufficient background data before the reader transitions to the chapters on marketing and distribution dynamics.
Chapter six which discusses risk management in the Nigerian petroleum products market equally lacks context and nuances to achieve depth.
Professor Billy-Okoye
However, chapters seven and eight which discuss guidelines and logistics in petroleum products marketing did not suffer the same surface-level presentation. Chapter seven in particular contains examples and specific contexts from the Nigerian petroleum industry. The good professor gave examples of the NNPC’s Direct Sale Direct Purchase Programme, and the regulatory guidelines for the importation of petroleum products.
Chapter nine, which aims to explore leadership in petroleum marketing, explains the role of leadership in the volatile petroleum marketing sector. It also appropriately situates leadership within the context of globalization, market uncertainty, and regulations, all of which are relevant in today’s oil and gas industry. However, the chapter fails to provide case studies in the Nigerian or global petroleum market. Mr Okoye as an executive in NNPCL, must have interfaced with the leadership of the large multinational companies who operated in Nigeria for a significant part of his over 30 year industry career; he most likely has case studies that could have enriched this chapter. The leadership challenges outlined are also not context-based or sector-specific.
Chapters 11 and 12 also offer some depth to the book, as the writer exhaustively discusses digital marketing and the Nigerian downstream petroleum sector. In chapter 12, the author gave historical references on the topic of deregulation. However, it would have been helpful if the author had compared the results of the implementation of partial and full deregulation of the downstream in Nigeria with other countries that have followed the same path.
Chapter 13, which discusses fuel subsidies, is enriched with data. It reveals that subsidy payments rose from ₦1.3Trillion in 2013 to ₦ 4.4Trillion in 2022. Fuel subsidies gulped more allocations than defense, health, and education.
Professor Okoye identifies smuggling as a major impediment to the fuel subsidy regime. However, his attempt to quantify Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption was speculative. As someone who headed the retail arm of the NNPC, he could have provided a more reliable figure. Indeed, like other stakeholders have disclosed, smuggling makes it difficult for Nigeria to quantify its fuel consumption.
Chapter 14 outlines solutions to fuel scarcity, but it is not clear if these solutions are recommended for Nigeria. It reads like a ‘literature review’ on aspects and remedies to fuel scarcity.
Chapter 16, which is on the role of security agencies in the petroleum market, also fails to discuss the topic beyond the statutory functions of the agencies. It also fails to mention joint task forces or joint operations among the agencies, and more importantly, the war on oil theft (including petroleum product theft) and pipeline vandalism headed by the NNPC. The same approach is taken in discussing the roles of regulatory agencies.
The last chapter (20), which focuses on energy transition offers a broad overview of the energy transition, covering both supply-side (company strategies) and demand-side (consumer behaviour) perspectives. However, it does not offer much technical depth as to how petroleum companies are integrating alternative fuels, or challenges peculiar to the Nigerian market. It also overlooks issues such as energy access, and how the transition could disproportionately impact low-income citizens and small businesses, who cannot afford the clean energy technologies.
The book, Dynamics of Petroleum Products Marketing offers an educational and educative overview of the petroleum industry in Nigeria and across the globe. Save for the lack of adequate contexts and insights from real-life events, it does provide readers with some foundational understanding of the petroleum products market.
The Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) has cautioned against anti-competitive behaviour in Nigeria’s energy market, warning of the risks it poses for the growth of the market and the economic growth of the country.
MEMAN is an influential downstream energy (principally petroleum products) industry association.
Clement Isong, the organisation’s Executive Secretary, addressed journalists on recent events in Nigeria’s petroleum market, after two facilitators made their presentations at a MEMAN –sponsored virtual press webinar/engagement. The speakers were Samer Matta, Senior Economist at the World Bank, and Francis Anatogu, the CEO of Transaharan, who was the inaugural Executive Secretary of the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA.
The webinar, entitled “Fair and Healthy Competition”, was anchored by Ogechi Nkwoji, a chartered accountant and head of MEMAN’s Economic Intelligence Research Regulation.
The World Bank’s Matta noted that many Nigerian sectors remain highly concentrated and urged regulators to strengthen enforcement frameworks and build internal capacity for competitive assessments.
Anatogu stressed the importance of clear dominance thresholds, transparent market access, and SME protection, urging regulatory agencies to improve coordination and provide accessible complaint channels with timely resolution mechanisms.
Journalists at the event sought to address what was, until then, the elephant in the room, pointedly asking Mr. Isong for MEMAN’s reaction to a recent policy announcement by the Dangote Refinery, which plans to distribute petroleum products, free of transportation and logistics charges, to wholesalers, retailers and end-users across the country with CNG-powered trucks.
“The session examined the implications of large-scale infrastructure such as the Dangote Refinery”, according to MEMAN’s summary of the proceedings, which could also be read as the communiqué. “While such investments promise supply chain efficiency, participants cautioned against unchecked dominance. The MEMAN Secretariat committed to conducting a thorough internal review of Dangote’s logistics initiative to assess its effect on downstream competition. Stakeholders stressed the need for regulators like the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to continue monitoring developments and ensure a level playing field”.
While the foregoing is a succinct summary, the following is what essentially happened.
Ms. Nkwoji sought to side step the question of MEMAN’s response to the Dangote announcement, but Success Nwogu, a Correspondent at The PunchNewspapers, insisted on getting a response from the Executive Secretary.
Isong then agreed to speak and in his response, acknowledged the initiative by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to carry out nationwide distribution with CNG-powered trucks as a “huge and brilliant initiative”, adding that promotion of CNG for people and business mobility was a policy of the Nigerian government.
“CNG trucks, as a means of distribution, whether it is petroleum products or any products, will reduce your operational cost by 30-40%. That is huge and that is brilliant”, Isong said.
He then noted that MEMAN would meet the management of the Dangote Refinery to better understand the company’s implementation plan, as well as engage with regulators and other stakeholders in the industry to safeguard open market competition.
“Now, it is the job of the FCCPC to consistently measure and the Nigerian midstream and downstream authority to find where to place the cursor between what is innovation, what is efficiency, what is for the ultimate benefit of the consumer, and where the risk of dominance begins to play a negative role.
“We have read, like you have read in the news, this initiative, We need to understand exactly where it impacts, what it impacts, before we can have some clarity as to how far it will go in terms of impact. And that requires a lot of discussion – discussion with Dangote himself, discussion with the authorities, discussion with other stakeholders, and discussion with you (the media). At some point in time, we shall engage and do what is necessary to protect the market should we have to do so,” he added.
Dangote’s Distribution Offer (Free of Transportation Cost)
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced in the week of June 9, 2025, that it would distribute petroleum products to any willing buyer across the country at no cost.
The company stated that this initiative is designed to enhance fuel accessibility and affordability nationwide, while also supporting key sectors, including manufacturing, telecommunications, and aviation.
The refinery revealed in a statement that it has procured 4,000 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered tankers to support the free nationwide distribution of PMS and diesel to marketers, petrol dealers, and major users.
“Under this initiative, all petrol stations purchasing PMS and diesel from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will benefit from this enhanced logistics support,” the statement noted.
The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) immediately condemned the move by the refinery, arguing that Alhaji Aliko Dangote might be planning to monopolise the petroleum market.
“...participants cautioned against unchecked dominance. The MEMAN Secretariat committed to conducting a thorough internal review of Dangote’s logistics initiative to assess its effect on downstream competition. Stakeholders stressed the need for regulators like the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to continue monitoring developments and ensure a level playing field.”
The Egyptian government has increased fuel prices again, the fourth time in 12 months, as part of the plan to move energy prices to cost recovery levels by the end of 2025.
Three fuel price increases were made in 2024, the last being in October 2024, when prices went up between 8% and 17.5%.
This time (April 13, 2025), the fuel pricing committee of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum raised vehicle fuel prices by 12.8-14.8%, according a statement.
Despite these new highs, the cost of buying fuels in Egypt’s petrol filling stations remained at less than three quarters of the prices in Nigeria, a comparable economy which has dispensed entirely with state superintended price control. The highest new PMS price in Egypt, which is EGP 19.00(or $.0.37) per litre, converts to 592Nigerian Naira, around 70% of the lowest price of PMS at Nigerian filling stations.
The Egyptian government kept down prices for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), described in Egypt as Autogas, and also held off increasing the price of heavy fuel oil for electricity and the food industry, but prices of heavy fuel oil meant for industrial purposes, as well as prices for LPG (butane or cooking gas), rose as high as those of diesel and premium motor spirit (PMS), as follows:
95-Octane (PMS) now costs EGP 19.00(or $.0.37) per litre, up 11.8% from EGP 17.00 ( $.0.33);
92-Octane (PMS) rose to EGP 17.25(or $.0.34) per litre, up 13.1% from EGP 15.25($.0.30);
80-Octane (PMS) reached EGP 15.75(or $.0.31) per litre), up 14.5% from EGP 13.75 ($0.27);
Diesel and kerosene now cost EGP 15.50 ($.0.30) per litre, up 14.8% from EGP 13.50($0.26);;
12.5-kg butane gas cylinder increased to EGP 200 ($3.9), up 33.3% from 150 EGP ($2.93), while the commercial cylinder now costs EGP 400 ($7.8), up 33.3% from EGP 300 ($5.85).
Prices for Heavy fuel oil for the industrial sector soared by 10.5% to EGP 10,500 ($205) per ton.
The Egyptian government declared that it would still spend up to $215Million every month on energy subsidies despite these hikes in prices, which have translated to steep cuts in subsidies
Mozambique’s Council of Ministers has decided that the Mozambique-Zimbabwe Pipeline Company [CPMZ] is no longer the concessionaire of the Beira-Zimbabwe pipeline, which has been continuously in operation for over 41 years (since 1982).
The Council of Ministers, effectively the cabinet, “approved the Decree which revokes Decree 1/84 of 22 February, which grants the Beira – Zimbabwe fuel pipeline exploitation project,” according to Filimão Suazi, spokesperson for the Cabinet meeting.
“The Decree revokes the concession to the Companhia do Pipeline Moçambique -Zimbabwe [CPMZ] for the exploitation of the Beira – Zimbabwe fuel pipeline and respective benefits: allowing the stability of ongoing investments, it attributes powers to the ministers who oversee the areas of Finance, Mineral Resources and Energy and of Transports and Communications to approve the necessary mechanisms to ensure the continuity of the exploitation of the Beira – Zimbabwe fuel pipeline, without prejudice to the competences of other bodies,” he added.
CPMZ had operated the Mozambique- Zimbabwe pipeline from the Mozambican coastal city of Beira to Feruka in Mutare, in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s National Oil and Infrastructure Company (NOIC), meanwhile, operates the Feruka Pipeline from Mutare to Mabvuku or Msasa depots in Harare.
The CPMZ-Feruka pipeline transports 90% of fuel into Zimbabwe while the balance of the fuel is imported by road.
Transnet, the South African state-owned logistics company says the annual revenue of its Pipelines unit was 7% above budget and operating expenditure was maintained well below the budget, resulting in EBITDA being 27% above budget in the 2023 financial year.
Transnet’s Pipeline Unit, simply called ‘Pipelines’, operates and maintains a 3,114 kilometre high-pressure petroleum and gas pipeline network in South Africa. The flagship infrastructure of that network includes the 715 kilometre long, multiproduct pipeline (MPP) to transport petrol, diesel and jet fuel from Durban to Gauteng as well as the 600 kilometre, 16-inch Secunda–Durban natural gas pipeline.
“Pipelines made significant progress in reducing fuel theft incidents in 2023. Pipelines achieved an 8.6% reduction in product loss due to theft incidents in 2023, when compared to the prior year, despite the number of fuel theft incidents increasing in 2023”, the company explains.
Transnet then claims that “the implementation of long-term holistic, sustainable solutions as well as ongoing engagements with all stakeholders to curb the number of incidents yielded positive results as fuel theft incidents reduced by 63% in the second half of the year when compared to the first six months”.
The targeted volume and actual deliveries for the 2023 financial year include:
Transnet Pipelines considers product theft along its pipelines as one of the company’s top risks, as, the company says:
It has adverse impact on Pipelines’ reputation and brand due to negative media coverage associated with the theft of product incidents
Loss of volumes as a result of product theft negatively impacts volume and revenue objectives
The product theft incidents caused interruptions on the pipeline operations, however, Pipelines continued to ensure security of fuel supply to the inland market.
The company also considers, as a high risk, the failure of certain parts of the Durban-Johannesburg Pipeline (Sasolburg to Kroonstad and Alrode to OR Tambo International Airport) due to inherent defects in the line.
Transnet expects to continue to implement the Pipeline Security Strategy to ensure safe operations and minimise the impact of fuel theft on the operational and financial performances.
It also wants to “fast-track the environmental remediation backlog to comply with relevant and applicable environmental legislation while maintaining organisational sustainability”.
The Mahathi Infra investment will eliminate approximately 100,000 truck journeys, annually, on East Africa’s busiest transport route – from Kisumu, Kenya, to Kampala, Uganda.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), has invested close to a hundred million dollars in Mahathi Infra Uganda Limited, one of East Africa’s largest oil and gas downstream players.
The financier’s $95.25Million investment will finance the construction of two self-propelled barges for operation on Lake Victoria, providing a more efficient and less carbon intensive alternative to traditional trucking, AFC says in a release. “The financing will also support enabling infrastructure including 14 petroleum storage tanks, 20 truck loading bays, a jetty, and a parking lot with a capacity of 50 trucks, thereby transforming petroleum product transportation in Uganda and significantly reducing cost, transport time, and carbon emissions.
Uganda is a net importer of petroleum products, primarily through the Mombasa Port in Kenya.
“As such, the project will have a significant impact on the country’s economy with a single barge trip on Lake Victoria replacing 200 trucks on the road. Annually, AFC’s investment will eliminate approximately 100,000 truck journeys on East Africa’s busiest transport route – from Kisumu, Kenya, to Kampala, Uganda.
“This reduction in road traffic will ease congestion and minimize issues such as product adulteration, theft, and accidents. It will also alleviate working capital burdens for small and medium-sized distributors, enabling them to procure products directly from the Mahathi storage facility, reducing delivery time from seven days to immediate access” the release explains.
“The self-propelled barges are designed in accordance with international Environmental & Safety standards to prevent fuel leakage. They will decrease greenhouse gas emissions by over 95%, from 172,103 tonnes to 7,692 tonnes of CO2, annually on the basis that one self-propelled barge has the equivalent storage capacity of 200 trucks and a significantly shorter travel distance over Lake Victoria of about 250kilometres compared with the 350kilometre road route.
“Upon completion, Mahathi’s workforce is estimated to increase from 22 to 100 employees, 30% of whom will be women. The project’s impact extends beyond Uganda, serving as a foundation for future expansions into other landlocked countries near Lake Victoria”.
Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has disclosed that a total of 56 marketing companies have now gotten the license to import fuel in Nigeria.
Ahmed listed Prudent Energy, AYM Shafa and Emadeb as the three companies currently importing PMS, adding that others will commence importation between August and September 2023.
The NMDPRA head, who was fielding questions by reporters, reiterated that government no longer determines the price of Gasoline (PMS) in Nigeria, but the market.
The subsidy on PMS in the country formally ended on May 29, 2023, the inauguration date of president Bola Tinubu. The deregulation of the market took off on that date.
Ahmed explained that 10 of the 56 companies licenced to import PMS have indicated to supply within the third quarter which is July, August and September. “And out of those, we already received some cargoes from some of these Marketers”.
“Ahmed pointed out that the fact that cargoes of PMS imported by Prudent Energy, AYM Shafa and Emadeb, arrived on July 19, 2023, was an “encouraging sign that the market is liberated and everyone is free to import so long as you are working within the framework especially in terms of quality.”
Mele Kyari, NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer,who was at the interactive session with reporters, said the upward rise in prices of PMS in the last six weeks of the deregulation has nothing to do with supply of PMS.
”There is no supply issue”, Kyari explained. “When you go to the market you buy the product, you come to the market and sell it at prevailing market price. There is nothing to do with supply, we don’t have supply issues.
”What I know is that the market forces will regulate the market, prices will go down sometimes and sometimes, it will go up but there will be stability of supply” he said
Chapter 14 outlines solutions to fuel scarcity, but it is not clear if these solutions are recommended for Nigeria. It reads like a ‘literature review’ on aspects and remedies to fuel scarcity.
