WHY IS PETROLEUM A PROBLEM IN NIGERIA
By Dickson Omobola
The jigsaw puzzle surrounding the quantity of petrol, otherwise called Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Nigeria consumes daily just got more puzzling as Sunday Vanguard understands that the figure went down to about 30 million liters per day after President Bola Tinubu’s ”subsidy is gone” statement of May 29, 2023 only to dramatically return to more than 60 million liters.
Multiple sources attributed the ‘magical’ rise to renewed smuggling of the product into neighboring countries where the price of the product is significantly higher than it is in Nigeria.
Until Tinubu ‘removed’ petrol subsidy via the 2023 Inauguration Day speech, the product sold for N254 but rose subsequently to N617 in Abuja and thereabouts in some parts of the country.
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In Lagos where it was cheapest, it sold for about N568 while it sold higher in other South-West states like Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti.
In the North, South-South and South-East, it was a different ballgame as the price of petrol skyrocketed above N615 while independent marketers sold above N800.
The quantity of petrol consumed daily in Nigeria has for a long time been a controversial issue with many stakeholders saying it was shrouded in secrecy especially since the quantity determined the amount to be paid as subsidy which many people including government officials benefited from.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in the first three months of 2022, Nigeria recorded an average daily consumption of 64.14 million liters, while the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) revealed in September 2022 that Nigeria’s average daily petrol consumption was 66.8 million liters.
However, at the beginning of 2023, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, said there was no credible data to ascertain the daily consumption of petrol in Nigeria while also stating that there was credible data on the actual volume of petrol evacuated from the depots.
Analysts believe the figures quoted are often that high because the bulk of the petrol earmarked for the local market is usually taken by smugglers across the borders, especially to neighboring countries, where the price of the product is very high because they don’t produce oil.
The smuggling of the product across the borders guarantees huge profits for those involved while subsidy also guarantees huge returns for marketers and government officials among others in the system.
But following the Inauguration Day pronouncement of Tinubu (subsidy is gone), daily consumption of petrol in Nigeria, according to sector regulator fell significantly.
Analysis of daily truck-out data published by the NMDPRA revealed that petrol consumption had reduced by more than 24 million liters per day on average.
The average daily consumption in May 2023 was 69.54 million liters which fell to 49.48 million liters in June, representing a 28.3% drop.
In July, this margin increased further to 34.61%, the equivalent of 24.06 million liters, and average daily consumption for the month fell further to 45.74 million liters.
The price of petrol in neighboring Benin Republic and Cameroon immediately soared, confirming the claim that both countries, among others, were befitting from the Nigerian subsidy regime.
Outside beneficiaries
Part of the reason adduced by the Nigerian government to cancel the subsidy regime is the fact that apart from the cabal using the regime to rip off government, nationals of neighboring were also beneficiaries.
But critics say the fact that government cannot police its borders in such a way that smuggling of petrol across the borders is stopped does not justify ending the subsidy regime that helps poor Nigerians to modulate the prices of other items that they need petrol to carry out.
Nigeria’s land borders are huge, covering an