The Nigerian Government revealed that fuel consumption in Nigeria dropped to 46.38 million litres per day following the removal of the subsidy.
This was disclosed by Ahmed Farouk, Chief Executive, NMDPRA, during a stakeholder meeting with oil and gas downstream operators in Lagos.
He noted that of the 56 companies that applied for import licenses to supply petrol only 10 committed to import.
This is 2 million litres less than the pre-announced figure of 48.4 after President the pronouncement according to Reuters and data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) earlier this month.
Decline in consumption
He added that this represents a 35% reduction when compared with the 65 million litres per day, prior to subsidy removal, citing that, the daily average truck out after the announcement of the subsidy removal on May 29, dropped to 46.38 million litres per day.
The fuel regulator chief, said this is a significant reduction when compared to previous months saying:
- “The current daily consumption has drastically reduced as against 65 million litres which had been the daily consumption before subsidy removal.
- “In January, it was 62 million litres per day; February, 62 million litres per day; March, 71.4 million litres per day; April, 67.7 million litres per day; May 66.6 million litres per day; June, 49. 5 million litres per day and July, 46.3 million litres per day,”.
Imports
On petrol importation, the NMDPRA boss said that over 56 companies applied for import licenses to bring in petrol, while only 10 made a commitment to import, adding that three marketers, namely Emadeb Energy, A.Y Shafa and Prudent Energy had imported petrol into the country.
- “The era of subsidy payment is gone; we encourage all marketers who are interested in importing petrol to apply for a license.
- “The meeting is to encourage marketers to import so that there will be availability of petrol at every nook and cranny of the nation.
- “The marketers have the choice to fix their price because it is a free market where there will be competition.
- “It is no longer Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) dominating the market, there will be other players to compete with NNPCL.
- “We do not want any dominant player in the market, that was why we liberalised the market for everybody to play,.”
Farouk added that the authority was working with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to checkmate marketers from taking unduly advantage of the consumers and the safety, consumer protection and standard in ensuring quality control within marketers.
What you should know
Earlier this month, Nairametrics disclosed that The daily average fuel consumption in Nigeria dropped by 18.5 million litres from 66.9 million litres pre-fuel subsidy to 48.4 after President Tinubu scrapped the expensive fuel subsidy program.
This comes after Reuters reported the drop marks a 28% decline in the daily petrol consumption in the country according to data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
