Why Nigeria’s petrol consumption has increased —MOMAN

Lagos -- The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, has cited subsidy as reason for the recent surge in daily Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, or petrol consumption in the countr y.

Tunji Oyebanji, chairman of the association, said in an exclusive interview with

SweetycrudeReports that although most stakeholders estimate Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption at not less than 55 million litres, findings indicate that Nigeria does not consume this amount of the product exclusively, as a huge chunk is being smuggled to neighbouring countries due to subsidy.

“Prior to the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s petrol consumption was estimated at between 35 million to 40 million litres daily. Less than six years after, the country’s average daily consumption have skyrocketed to over 72.72 million litres per day from 57.44 million litres sold a month earlier, exposing the thriving activities of

smugglers in the nation’s petroleum industry,” he said.

SweetcrudeReports had earlier reported its recent findings that daily consumption of the product in Nigeria had recently increased to 80 million litres per day.

Data from NNPC also showed the North West region consumed more volume of petrol of 985,974,850 litres in Q1 2020 compared to the

Southeast region of 599,821,058 litres within the same period.

“For MOMAN, the absence of subsidies in Nigeria’s neighbouring countries has for many years fuelled the incentive to smuggle an estimated 30 percent of the country’s daily consumption, which basically means Nigeria is subsidising its neighbours,” Oyebanji said.

In its latest newsletter, MOMAN put the average pump price of petrol in other West African countries at between N312 and N570 per litre, compared to N166.4 per litre in Nigeria.