Fact check: Bello Dan Bello Gadalanci lied; Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, owner of Matrix Energy, is behind petrol imports from Malta and Russia
Nigeria was recently inundated with news regarding a massive increase in petroleum imports from Malta, following claims by Aliko Dangote, head of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and a social media enthusiat, Bello Gadalanci.
Nigeria imported $2.8 billion of petroleum from Malta in 2023, up from $13.32 million in 2016 and nil between 2017 and 2022.
Mele Kyari, GCEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), refuted Dangote’s claim and stated that he has no interest in any plants in Malta.
Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, owner of Matrix Energy and member of the presidential economic coordination council (PECC), is one of the largest importers from the small European country.
Aliu categorically denied any misconduct in his business methods and promised a thorough response to the newspaper’s enquiries.
According to an informant who revealed classified records with TheCable, more than 200,000 tonnes of petrol from Malta were discharged into the Matrix jetty in Warri, Delta State, in July 2024.
“This represents about 25 percent of Nigeria’s monthly PMS consumption going to a relatively small player with only 150 retail stations,” a source told me.
According to the insider, Aliu is also using his tight relationships with top management at Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) to get crude oil cargoes for his company.
According to a person acquainted with the company’s activities, the NNPC allocates crude cargoes to Matrix Energy at its discretion each month.
According to the source, Gulf Transport & Trading (GTT), a UAE-based trading corporation, exchanges the crude allocations with Matrix.
According to the source, GTT received two of three crude cargoes from the newly launched Utapate grade.
“The crude cargoes are routinely sold for a $3 per barrel premium, which translates to $3 million each cargo with no effort. This suggests a tax-free take of about $150 million per year, or N240 billion, at N1,600 per dollar.”
On August 5, NNPC released the Utapate crude oil mix to the international market.
NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), NNPC’s upstream subsidiary, fully operates oil mining lease (OML) 13, which produced the new crude oil grade.
Matrix, which has three ageing ships (Matrix Pride, Matrix Triumph, and Matrix S.ILU), purportedly transports diesel products from Russia to Lome, Togo.
People are aware that Russian diesel is often off-spec, and that Lome and Malta routinely rectify it by combining it with other components.
However, on June 16, around 15,000 tonnes of fuel, which had been loaded on May 26 from Novorossiysk, Russia, and transported by the vessel MT Kallos, were apparently transloaded onto Matrix Triumph offshore Lome without modifications and released into Matrix jetty in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria, on June 21.
Matrix Pride transloaded an additional 15,000 tonnes on June 19 before discharging them at the Obat Oil terminal on June 22.
According to records obtained by TheCable, products from Malta were carried via intermediate ships and, in some cases, through intermediate firms such as Poly Pro Trading, which is registered in the Dubai Free Trade Zone.
According to TheCable’s inspections, their listed office at OneJLT Towers 05.015 in Dubai is a business centre with no physical presence.
“Malta is now the top European destination for blending and ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products ever since the Greek navy decided to stop such activities in their offshore zone,” a source informed me.
“Naphtha and other components, blended into petrol to produce lower quality ‘African Spec’, account for about 35 percent of shipments into Malta.” Various vessels then tranship this lower-quality specification into Nigeria, where it is sold to the unknowing public, who commonly face vehicle and equipment failure.
Although an oil blending facility cannot refine, it may combine re-refined oil—used motor oil that has been treated to remove debris, gasoline, and water—with additives to create finished lubricant goods.