The supply of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased above the pre-COVID-19 levels, reaching 2.25 billion litres in December last year.
The corporation said last Thursday that 2.25 billion litres of petrol were sold and distributed by its subsidiary, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) in December compared to 1.72 billion litres in November.
In June last year, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, at an interactive hearing organised by the Joint Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), said petrol was being smuggled out of Nigeria to neighbouring countries.
According to him, around 54 million litres of petroleum products are evacuated from the depot daily, but the consumption is somewhere below that.
He explained that the NNPC had no knowledge of the amount of products that are transported through Nigeria’s borders to neighbouring countries as they are no records because they are being smuggled.
The Chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Adetunji Oyebanji, stated that the NNPC itself had said recently that about 30 per cent of the country’s petrol supply was going to neighbouring countries.
READ ALSO: Nigeria Lost ₦192.22bn From Gas Flaring In 2020 – NNPC
He attributed this to the ‘substantial difference between the price in Nigeria and the prices in the neighbouring countries’.
He said, “In effect, we are subsidising petrol prices in those countries. If over there, petrol is being sold between maybe N300 and N500 per litre, and you insist on selling yours at N160, it means for anybody that can get any quantity across, he will be making N150 per litre.
“That incentive is too much; it will always be attractive for people to do that. In all those countries, they are paying the real price of fuel; unlike in Nigeria, where the price is being subsidised.”
Oyebanji said the money being spent on subsidy should be used to invest in infrastructure, health, and education, among others, adding that the organised labour should be clamouring for subsidy removal.
