Lagos (Platts)--4Jan2010/807 am EST/1307 GMT

State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp said Monday it expects to take delivery of 13 fuel cargoes this month to tackle product scarcity that hit the West African nation three months ago.

Despite producing more than two million b/d of crude oil, Nigeria imports more than 85% of its petroleum product needs due to production problems at the four state-owned refineries.

"We have nine cargoes that arrived last month and we are expecting 13 more to arrive this month," NNPC spokesman Levi Ajuonuma told Platts in Lagos. "With this, the product supply picture should be very robust. We currently have between 26 and 30 days of stock, but distribution challenges have been the main headache."

NNPC said December 19 that it placed orders for 10 additional cargoes of gasoline to cover shortfalls in imports by private companies.

The NNPC in August first placed orders for 60 cargoes of petroleum products and said it would import every month an additional seven cargoes each of gasoline, diesel and household kerosene to cover the last quarter of 2009.

A spokesman for the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body for major fuel marketers, told reporters in Lagos over the weekend that NNPC fuel cargoes failed to arrive as scheduled due to debts the Corporation owed oil traders on previous imports, a situation that aggravated the crisis.

But Ajuonuma denied NNPC was indebted to importers. "Every one knows that in international trade, credit is a circle and NNPC has been settling the traders as and when due," he said.

--Staff, newsdesk@platts.com