Government Spends N3tr Importing Petroleum Products

​The Federal Government spent about N3 trillion to import petroleum production between January 2015 to April 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest petroleum import data released at the weekend.

Specifically, the country imported N570.6 billion worth of petroleum products between January and April this year while the country consumed about N2.4 trillion products in whole of 2015.

The NBS report, identified the products to include Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas and Oils (AGO) and Household Kerosene (HHK) respectively.

A breakdown of the value spent on petroleum imports showed that the country consumed N431 billion of PMS from January to April this year; spent N118 billion on Automotive Gas Oil and N20 billion on House Hold Kerosene during the period under review.

Besides, despite the relatively low cost of fuel at some filling stations, which has reduced to about N140 per litre around the country, petrol still sell above the prescribed pump price of N145 in Cross River, Kaduna and Yobe states respectively.

For instance, PMS consumers in the three states, pay as much as between N152 and N155 for a litre of petrol.

A marketer, who spoke to The Guardian in confidence, attributed the high cost of petrol in some states to the difficulties in getting the products to those locations.

According to the source, petrol is cheaper in some states because of their nearness to the various depots, which allows easy movement of trucks to the filling stations.

The source said that most of the retailers who sell above pump price, do so due to the exorbitant price at which they also bought the product from depots.

But the product is selling at N143 per litre in Osun, Abuja and Akwa Ibom respectively.

In the midst of this challenges, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has intensified efforts to maintain availability of petroleum products in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria and keep Nigerians abreast of the key actions taken in the downstream petroleum sector. It is doing this by collaborating with citizens and other stakeholders to combat corruption, inefficiencies and service issues in the oil and gas sector.

According to the Corporation, the re-commissioning of the Escravos-Warri-Kaduna pipeline will enable the supply of crude oil to Warri and Kaduna refineries after many years of inactivity in an effort to combat the national fuel situation.

“Therefore, the three refineries are working, which will help in a great deal with the issue of fuel supply and distribution across the country and it will go a long way to manage the fuel crisis. In addition, there is ongoing competitive tendering process to find partners to overhaul the ailing refineries to ensure fuel sufficiency,” it noted.

NNPC disclosed that a total of 876.18 million litres of white products were distributed and sold by Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) in the month of July 2016 compared with 860.46 million litres in the month of June 2016.

This, it said, comprised of 821.07 million litres of PMS, 39.17 million litres of kerosene and 15.94 million litres of diesel.

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