By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Rivers State chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Dr Joseph Obele has reacted to the claims that Nigeria consumes 65 million litres of PMS per day.
Dr Obele said this while responding to questions on the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed statement on fuel Subsidy.
The Minister had stated that Nigeria spent N18.397 billion on fuel subsidy every day.
The minister disclosed this at the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee set up to Investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime from 2013 to 2022.
She said, “For 2023, the projection is that the average daily truck out will be N64.96 million litres per day; that is about 65 million per day, using an average rate open market rate of N448.20k and then a regulator pump price of N165 per litre. This gives us an average under-recovery, that is the difference between N165 and N448 of N283.2k.”
Dr. Obele, in reaction, said it was regrettable that no one actually knows the country’s daily fuel consumption, as both NNPC and the defunct DPR always give conflicting figured.
He said that the country might be feeding the cabals or subsidizing for the neighbouring countries arising from the porous borders.
He explained that it was impossible for the country to consume up to 65million litres per day, describing it outrageous quantity.
“There is no doubt that landing cost of PMS is about N450 per liter. There is no doubt that federal government pays about N280 per liter as subsidy since our selling rate as stipulated by federal government is N165 per liter.
“There is no doubt that we are importing all the refined Petroleum products we consume in our country since our refineries are not functional.
“The doubt is the daily quantity consumed by Nigerians.
“NNPC reported that Nigeria daily consumption of Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol, has risen from 72.07 million litres a day in December 2021 to 74 million litres per day as at the week ended April 3, 2022.
“According to DPR, prior to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s fuel consumption figure had been put at between 30 million and 35 million litres. It later rose to 60 million litres per day, 55 million litres, while until today, no one actually knows the country’s daily fuel consumption.
“The racket is in the daily consumption. Our lifting Analysis by our knowledge is not such outrageous quantity. We might be feeding the cabals or subsidizing for our neighboring countries arising from our porous borders.
“Our position, we challenge the minister that such amount is not correct arising from the quantity adopted.”
Dr. Obele urged that the government should continue paying the subsidy until they fix “our four National refineries so that Nigerians shall end subsidy payment regime and importation of refined Petroleum products. By that Nigerians will buy fuel less than N100 per litre.”
