Jenny Asemota
Expectations were high when oil marketers canvassed for the removal of fuel subsidies, and deregulation of the downstream sector. Many were optimistic that the deregulation of the downstream sector would break the monopoly of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in petrol importation and bring an end to the country’s perennial scarcity of the product.
The National Controller Operations of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mike Osatuyi, told The PUNCH that marketers were not importing petrol because of forex scarcity and the increasing price of crude oil at the international market.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and NNPCL had argued that other marketers were free to import petrol, as those who had applied for importation licenses had been given.
Emadeb Energy’s Chief Executive, Adebowale Olujimi, during the arrival of the product vessel in June, said petrol importation was not “sustainable”.
Since the end of subsidies, which cost the country about N12tr, prices of petrol have risen from between N180 and N200 per litre to between N614 and N700 per litre. There were fears that the price could go as high as N720 per litre due to the rising exchange rate and the rising price of crude at the international market, but the NNPCL has since allayed the fear.
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