Abuja — The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) above the current landing cost of N1,117 per litre.
This move, he emphasized, is crucial to preventing the rampant smuggling of the product to neighboring countries.
Lokpobiri made this disclosure in Abuja, highlighting the role of complicit security agencies in the ongoing smuggling activities. He asserted that unless NNPCL prices PMS above the landing cost, smugglers will continue to exploit the price differential, moving the product across borders for higher profits.
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The directive follows a meeting between NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, and the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, regarding the impact of the NCS’s “Operation Whirlwind” in reducing PMS smuggling in Nigeria’s border communities. Kyari noted that PMS evacuation to these regions had decreased from 32 million litres per day to 25 million litres within two months, reflecting the operation’s effectiveness.
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Since the federal government removed the subsidy on petrol in May 2023, the price of PMS in Nigeria has surged from around N197 to about N650 per litre. Despite this increase, the product remains significantly cheaper in Nigeria compared to neighboring countries, where it sells for as much as N2,128.20 per litre in Mali and an average of N1,787.57 across the region.
This disparity has fueled the smuggling of PMS out of Nigeria, with Lokpobiri stressing that pricing the fuel above the landing cost would eliminate the profit margins that drive this illegal trade.
The minister’s directive aims to align NNPCL’s pricing strategy with regional market conditions, thereby discouraging smuggling and ensuring that the product remains available for domestic consumption.
