The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is building eight more tanks in its bid to have enough storage for imported crude oil.

A report by Africa Report has it that the refinery is ramping up its storage capacity by 6.29 million barrels, equivalent to 1 billion litres.

The report stated that the $20bn refinery is planning to stockpile imported crude oil as local supplies became unreliable.

Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited “is driving import dependence.”

The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the $20bn refinery jump by 41.67 per cent to 3.4 billion litres.

“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, was quoted as having said.

“So we have started building eight additional crude tanks to hold a billion litres, over and above our original storage capacity. Four of them are nearing completion,” Edwin added.

The refinery currently has 20 crude storage tanks with a capacity of 120 million litres each, totalling 2.4 billion litres.

Its refined product tanks have a total capacity of 2.34 billion litres.

Dangote began producing diesel and aviation fuel in January 2024, and petrol in September, with products supplied to the domestic market and exported to several countries.

Edwin described the supply of crude oil from the NNPC to the Dangote refinery as “still very low”.

Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest oil producer, was importing its fuels until last year when the Dangote refinery came on stream.

Today, the NNPC’s Warri and Port Harcourt refineries have resumed operations, indicating that the company would have to supply crude to the two facilities aside from the percentage committed to servicing its loans.

Nigeria has continued to contend with underinvestment and production outages caused largely by theft and pipeline vandalism, which have seen it lose its top spot in Africa several times in recent years.

However, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission said last month that crude is 1.45 million barrels per day as of November, 99 per cent of its 1.5mbpd OPEC quota.

The PUNCH reports that Dangote’s decision to expand storage facilities for imported crude could be an indication that the naira-for-crude deal ordered by President Bola Tinubu might be fading out gradually.

Before President Bola Tinubu ordered the sale of crude to Dangote refinery in August, the facility had battled months of crude shortage.

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, accused international oil companies of plans to sabotage the refinery by refusing to supply crude oil.

On July 29, the Federal Executive Council approved a proposal by Tinubu for the NNPC to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira.

It approved that the 450,000 barrels meant for domestic consumption be offered in naira to the refineries, using the Dangote refinery as a pilot.

The implementation of the initiative started on 1 October, with the NNPC expected to commence the supply of about 385,000 bpd of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid for in naira.

Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries, said in December that the naira-for-crude deal has led to a reduction in prices of petroleum products in the country

At the moment, the Dangote refinery is ramping up production as its petrol gathers momentum among Nigerian vehicle owners.

The Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has signed Executive Order No. 1, 2025, designating some areas in the state as urban areas. He also signed the Land Use Regulation 2025.

The state government stated in a statement on its website on Friday that the entire Enugu East, Enugu North, and Enugu South Local Government Areas have been designated urban areas by the provisions of the Executive Order, titled “Enugu State Designation of Land as Urban Areas.”

Likewise, the entire Udi, Nkanu West, Nkanu East, and Nsukka Council Areas have been designated as urban areas.

Others created as urban areas are Ndeabor, Oduma Urban Area, Awgu Town, Ihe, Agbogugu, Mgbowo, Isu-Awa, Mmaku, Ituku, and Owelli-Court urban areas as well as Aguobuowa and Oghe in Ezeagu Council Area.

Ogbede, Ukehe, and Aku in Igbo-Etiti; Enugu Ezike in Igbo Eze North Council Area, Ibagwa-Aka in Igbo-Eze South LGA; and Ikem and Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area have been so designated

The order equally designated Oji-River, Ugwuoba, and Inyi in Oji-River Council Area; Obollo-Afor and Orba in Udenu Council Area; Umulokpa and Adani in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area as urban areas.

Speaking on the development, Mbah said, “I have just a few minutes ago signed a Land Use Regulation of 2025, and also an Executive Order designating certain locations of the state as urban areas.

“This is a major and historic milestone that we have just witnessed. It aligns with what we witnessed a few weeks ago when we formally launched the Enugu State Geographic Information System. It is a system that is designed to fast-track applications for land titles and indeed other administrative functions relating to land.

“So, what we have here today is going to bring clarity. As we all know, lack of transparency feeds corruption. This is really a major milestone towards our drive not just to enhance the revenue of Enugu State, but to ensure ease of doing business”.

He explained that the order would enable the prospective applicants to easily know what their fees were and the timelines that the application would be processed.

“With what we have done here today, there are no more hidden charges when you apply for whatever land transaction, whether it is for search, titles or indeed for whatever transactions you want to carry out relating to land in Enugu State.

“It is also going to end the era of double allocations, land grabbing, and all sorts of confusion that may have existed before now in our land management system.We have also expanded areas that before now we have designated as rural areas.

“That means effectively that those living in those locations are now able to come forward and apply for their title document and they will be able to obtain their Certificate of Occupancy for the property and assets they have there,” Mbah said.

While commending his team for the good job done, the governor promised that there would be adequate public enlightenment on the processes of land transactions under the new Order, Land Use Regulation, and the Enugu Geographic Information Service.

“This regulation clearly spells out the number of days it will require for any application, whether you are conducting your search or indeed applying to obtain your title document.

“The number, the timelines, your fees are spelled out. So, there is absolutely no confusion. So, I thank you all for all your efforts,” he emphasised.

Nigeria’s military personnel are now expressly prohibited from engaging in homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, cross-dressing, and other acts deemed contrary to the ethics of the armed forces.

The personnel are equally barred from body piercing, tattooing, disorderly behaviour, and drunkenness on or off duty.

This directive is contained in Section 26 of the revised Harmonised Armed Forces Terms and Conditions of Service signed by President Bola Tinubu on December 16, 2024.

A copy of the document obtained by our correspondent on Saturday partly read, “An officer must not engage in homosexuality, lesbianism, and bestiality.

“He/she is not to belong to, or engage in activities of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Trans, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual or Agender, Two-Spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) group and cross-dressing, amongst others.

“An officer must not engage in body piercing and tattooing of any part of his body. An officer shall not engage in any form of disorderly behaviour, brawl, or any action of public disgrace. An officer must not at any time be drunk whether on or off duty.”

The condition of service also forbids the involvement of officers in amorous relationships with subordinates or their spouses.

“An officer shall not engage in any amorous relationship with any soldier/rating/airman/airwoman, fellow officer’s or soldier’s/rating’s/airmen’s/air women’s spouse, “ it stated.

The military personnel are obligated to pay financial dues, including vehicle licenses and insurance on time, while they are prohibited from joining secret societies or political parties.

“An officer shall pay all just financial obligations in a proper and timely manner, especially those imposed by law and mutual contract. It is a very serious offence for an officer to be apprehended for failure to license or insure his vehicle, and other legal financial obligations. In the same vein, the issuance of a dud cheque constitutes an offence.

The document read further, “An officer shall not hold membership of any secret society or political party. He shall not participate, in any way, in activities concerned with such societies or parties even in observatory capacities.

“For the avoidance of doubt, since cultural or purely traditional religious societies are not normally secret by membership or in the conduct of their affairs, they are ipso-facto excluded from belonging to secret societies.”

Having a private business, and misuse of government property for personal gain are also prohibited for serving personnel.

“An officer shall not engage in private business. He shall not use or be allowed to use government property, his name, position and connection in any way with commercial enterprises outside employment or activity with or without compensation, which interfere or has the tendency of interfering with his official duty or which may be reasonably expected to bring discredit to the Service.

“An officer shall not accept gifts, favours, entertainments, etc, from officers junior to him in rank or from soldiers/ratings/airmen/airwomen,” the condition of service added.

The punishments or disciplinary measures against any personnel who violate the rules were, however, not stated.