Latest figures in the financial and operations report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation have shown that the imports of Premium Motor Spirit (or petrol) by the NNPC rose by 100 million litres following the dormancy of Nigeria’s refineries to refine crude. NNPC is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria and the corporation manages the country’s refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri. It, however, said in its latest report that no petrol had been produced by the refineries for about 13 months running. An analysis of the report by our correspondent on petroleum product supply through NNPC’s Direct Sales Direct Purchase scheme showed that PMS imports in January 2021 rose by 100 million litres when compared to what was imported in December 2020. In explaining the DSDP, the oil firm stated that in compliance with the Public Procurement Act 2007 and NNPC’s Policy and Procedures, it had to engage qualified and credible companies in a Direct Sale of crude oil and Direct Purchase of petroleum product to ensure sustained product supply across the country. The oil firm had over the years adopted the scheme to ensure petrol imports into Nigeria, being the sole importer of the commodity, while other marketers had avoided PMS imports due to inaccessibility of the dollar.