The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has revealed that local refineries contribute less than 50% of the country’s daily petrol consumption, leaving a significant shortfall that must be covered through imports.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, represented by the Executive Director of Distribution System, Storage, and Retailing Infrastructure, Ogbugo Ukoha, provided insight into the current state of the country’s fuel supply.
He noted that despite the commencement of operations at the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) Dangote refinery and the reopening of the state-owned 210,000 bpd Port Harcourt refinery and 125,000 bpd Warri refinery in 2024, local production still falls short.
Nigeria’s petrol consumption has reduced from an average of 66 million litres per day to about 50 million litres per day since the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023. However, Ukoha pointed out that more than half of this daily demand is met through importation.
“Let me speak a little bit about supply,” Ukoha said. “All of us experienced a Yuletide free of petrol scarcity. And let me just reconfirm that from year to year, we saw an increase in the demand for PMS from 2021, 2022, up to 2023, just before the current administration came in. The daily PMS supply sufficiency was always in excess of 60 million per day.”
He further stated that although the government had anticipated that local refining would significantly reduce import dependency, none of the domestic refinery operators, including those who own private facilities, have imported petrol in 2025. Instead, other oil marketing companies (OMCs) have taken on the responsibility of importing to cover the deficit.
“Let me also say that none of the oil marketing companies, the companies that own refineries in the country for this year have imported any PMS. The other OMCs are the ones that are importing the shortfall. And if we do nothing to bridge that shortfall, we will have scarcity in our hands.
“And that’s something that the regulator is mindful of, to ensure that there is sufficient supply of petroleum products across the country. So just for clarity, what I am saying is that the contribution of local refineries towards sufficiency is less than 50 per cent. That is between January and February 2025, is less than 50 per cent of what we require daily. And that shortfall is sourced by way of imports.
“Even though none of the OMCs that own the local refineries have imported PMS this year, we are also minded that if we find ourselves in the situation that the PIA described where you have to resort to the supplier of last resort, we will go to them and require them to bridge the gap. Never mind the fact that every OMC has a right to apply to the authority.”
