ABSTRACT
Petroleum product marketing in Nigeria was introduced in 1908 by Socony Vacuum Oil Company which later became Mobil Nigeria Plc. In the early years the ‘Sunflower’ brand of kerosene was marketed in Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu and Ibadan. In subsequent years other MNCs – Shell, Texaco, Esso and British Petroleum – marketed petrol, kerosene, diesel and Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK). In 1965 the old Port Harcourt refinery with an initial capacity of 35,000 b/d was jointly established by Shell and British Petroleum to refine crude oil locally to produce petrol, kerosene, diesel and other related products. The capacity of this pioneer refinery was later expanded to 65,000 b/d in response to increasing domestic demand. Between 1974 and 1976 incidents of product scarcity were experienced and a study conducted by the government established that the scarcity derived from low supply as well as inadequate distribution channels. More importantly, it was confirmed that the demand for petroleum products had increased significantly, so in 1978 Warri refinery was constructed and the southern pipeline network was completed. In 1980 Kaduna refinery was commissioned and within the same period the northern products pipelines and depots were established to transport, store and distribute petroleum products from the refinery. In the area of products marketing the subsector was dominated by National Oil, African Petroleum, Unipetrol, Texaco, Elf, Agip and Mobil. Some of these companies have changed ownership: Conoil and Oando have acquired National Oil and Unipetrol respectively. Elf has also metamorphosed into Total.
