The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Monday said 62.95 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) commonly called fuel has been trucked out daily in the country this year.
Adebayo Adeniyi, the head of finance and account of the Authority said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives committee on finance for interaction on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/FSP from 2023- 2025.
Adeniyi also said NMDPRA projected the cost of fuel per litre to be within the range of N250, N272 to N443, depending on the effects of some factors such as the deregulation of the product, the Russia-Ukraine war and the exchange rate of the dollar.
He said: “The average daily truck out for 2022 is 62.95 million litre per day. This is from actual trucks. Based on our projection for between 2023-2025, we are projecting a 3.2 % increase in the GDP. We used that to project the daily truckout for 2023-2025. On the average expected open price, at today subsidy still reigns, but we expect that deregulation will come at a point. Based on an average—if deregulated, the price of petroleum will be about N272 per litre.
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“However, from our projections, 2023-2024, our projection is that the open market price will go to as high as N443 per litre. And this based on the fact of changes in the dollar rate and the Ukraine war that is going on, which stabilizes the market and the price will be going up higher and higher in the whole world. For 2025, our projection for the price of PMS is N250. Is this based on the hope that the dollar would have stabilized and the Ukraine war would have ended.”
John Dyegh, a member of the committee, called the attention of the Authority to the figures of 62 and 98 million litres being bandied by the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited.
But Adeniyi insisted on the NMDPRA’s figure, saying: “Quite a number of statistics or people giving out all sorts of figures. Major information comes from the defunct PPPRA. What we gave you is what is obtainable is actual truck out. When we say truck-out, we mean from the depot to the retail outlets. I don’t know where other figures may be coming out. I cannot speculate on that. All the depots operating in Nigeria are discharging products.”
In his remarks, the deputy chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdullahi asked the agency to meet with sister organisations to harmonise the figures.
“Even yesterday, the figure NNPC Limited quoted is not in tandem with your figure. You people need to reconcile your position. Even on the information — if you keep on sending figures. On the right path, even on the information available to the public. If you have information being churned out–different information being churned out by different agencies, you are not giving us room to appreciate what you are doing.
“It now gives room to imagination. Some people will start thinking, where are we getting it wrong? I will want you to use this platform to educate Nigerians”, he said.
