Oil Marketers Claim Petrol Subsidy Has Returned

• Nigerian oil marketers assert the return of the subsidy regime, just five months after its termination by President Tinubu
• NNPC Limited denies plans to raise petrol pump prices, confirms partial subsidy amid displeasure from petrol marketers

Nigerian oil marketers have declared that the controversial oil subsidy regime terminated by President Tinubu’s administration has returned just five months later.

With the rise in the landing cost of petrol, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has stated that it has no intention of raising the pump price of petrol, also known as premium motor spirit (PMS), at its retail outlets, substantiating reports of a partial subsidy regime.

This comes as petrol marketers have expressed their displeasure with the monopoly in the supply of the product into the country, even as they confirmed that subsidy has crept in due to the government’s intervention.

On social media, there has been speculation that the oil company intends to raise the petrol pump price to more than N700 per litre. However, NNPC’s retail subsidiary said in a statement on Thursday that it had no plans to raise the product’s price.

“Dear esteemed customers, we at NNPC Retail value your patronage, and we do not intend to increase our PMS pump prices as widely speculated,” the statement says.

Please visit our NNPC Retail Stations nationwide to purchase high-quality products at low prices.”

Following President Bola Tinubu’s declaration that the subsidy regime was over, the national oil company raised the price of gasoline in May 2023. The commodity’s price increased further in July, reaching N617 per litre in the federal capital territory (FCT) and N568 in Lagos.

Mele Kyari, the NNPC’s group chief executive officer (GCEO), addressed the issue, blaming market forces for the price increase.

However, marketers argue that, given the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provisions, NNPC should not be the sole importer of petrol into the country.

“First and foremost, we must break free from the bottleneck we have created for ourselves, in which the NNPC is the sole importer of fuel into Nigeria,” Tunji Oyebanji, MD/CEO of 11 Plc, said at the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria’s annual conference in Lagos.

Former chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Oyebanji, believes the NNPC’s monopoly must be broken.

“The monopoly of a single supplier in the country must be dismantled because it’s inefficient and unsustainable.”