…says Nigeria exiting import dependence
As the crisis in the Middle East continues to affect oil prices, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has revealed that Nigeria’s petrol price could have surged beyond N2,000 per litre if the country had remained fully dependant on imported fuel.
The Authority Chief Executive (ACE) NMDPRA, Saidu Mohammed, who made the disclosure while receiving the management of New Telegraph Newspaper during a courtesy visit, stressed that the emergence of local refining capacity has become a major buffer against global energy shocks. According to him, the country narrowly avoided a deeper fuel crisis because of the presence of a domestic refinery.
He said: “If we had no refinery today, what you would have called a surge in petrol price would probably have crossed N2,000 per litre. We would have had a completely different situation in this country.” The NMDPRA boss explained that the regulator’s major responsibility was not to fix fuel prices but to ensure energy security and stability in supply, especially in a deregulated market.
According to him, “the entire petroleum products market is now fully deregulated. In that situation, the regulator does not control price. What we can do is influence stability by ensuring availability of crude feedstock and encouraging local refining.” He emphasised that the Authority’s priority was to reduce Nigeria’s heavy reliance on imported fuel, which for years weakened the economy and undermined local industries.
“Since I came on board, what is paramount is to gradually reduce reliance on imports. Importation has destroyed many industries in this country in the past, and we don’t want the refining sector to go that way,” he added. The ACE drew parallels with the collapse of Nigeria’s once-thriving textile industry saying: “The textile sector disappeared largely because of uncontrolled imports. We exported cotton but failed to support our local manufacturers.
We cannot allow the refinery sector to suffer the same fate.” He disclosed that regulators and key energy institutions were now working together to ensure Nigerian refineries receive sufficient crude oil at competitive prices. He said: “We had a meeting just yesterday with the NUPRC, NNPC and other stakeholders. The entire discussion was about how to improve crude supply to Nigerian refineries because the export market pays more.
If we want petrol prices to remain stable in Nigeria, we must guarantee feedstock for local refineries.” According to him, while it may not be possible to allocate 100 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil production to local refining, the country must significantly increase supply to domestic processors.
“Even if we cannot meet 100 per cent of refinery needs with Nigerian crude, we should not be talking about 30 per cent. We should be talking about 70 or even 80 per cent. That is the target we are pushing for,” he added. The ACE stressed that contrary to public perception, the Federal Government currently does not impose taxes on petrol consumption, leaving limited room for fiscal interventions to reduce pump prices.
