NMDPRA Backs Daily Fuel Consumption Figure of 66 Million Litres

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has backed the 66 million litres daily Premium Motor Spirit consumption figure released last weekend by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd.

The Regulator said in a statement on Friday that the actual daily truck out from 1st January 2022 to 31st July 2022 stands at 66.89 million litres.

The assertion by NMDPRA is in line with the position of the NNPC Ltd which had put the average daily evacuation (Depot truck out) from January to August 2022 stands at 67 million litres.

The clarification by the Regulator followed claims made by the Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali, (retd) about the fuel consumption figures in the country,

Ali had queried why the Nigerian NNPC Ltd, would allow the release of 98 million litres of petrol per day for local consumption, instead of 60 million litres admitted by its own computation.

He had during a meeting with National Assembly members last Thursday said: “I remember that last year, we spoke about this but unfortunately, this year, we are talking about subsidy again.

“The issue is not about smuggling of petroleum products. I have always argued this with NNPC. If we are consuming 60 million litres per day by their own computation, why would you allow the release of 98 million litres per day?

”If you know this is our consumption, why would you allow that release? Scientifically, you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow, I will fill the same tank with the same quantity of fuel.

” If I am operating a fuel station and I go to Minna depot, lift petrol and take it to Kaduna, I may get to Kaduna in the evening and offload that fuel.

“There is no way I would have sold off that petrol immediately to warrant another load. So, how did you get to 60 million litres per day? That is my problem. The issue of smuggling, if you release 98 million litre in actual, and 60 million litres is used, the balance should be 38 million litres.

“How many trucks will carry 38 million litres every day? Which road are they following and where are they carrying this thing to.

But reacting to the claims made by the Customs CG, the Authority said, “The Federal Government Medium Term Expenditure and Revenue Framework (MTERF), which is a three year forward looking budgetary tool comprises contributions from various agencies.

“The Authority and its legacy agencies annually provide truck out forecasts for this planning purpose. The Authority, during a recent interactive session with the House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance, quoted 62.9 million litres as the 2022 baseline daily truck out projection.

“For clarity, the figure provided was used in 2021 solely to forecast the expected revenue for 2022 and does not in any way translate to the actual truck out volume for this year.

“In line with the NMDPRA mandate as provided in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to ensure transparency in the oil and gas industry, the Authority publishes on its website (www.nmdpra.gov.ng/daily-truckout) the actual daily truck out.

“As can be verified from the website, the actual daily truck out from 1st January 2022 to 31st July 2022 stands at 66.89 million litres.

“The Authority assures the general public that it is committed to providing credible and transparent data on the supply and distribution of petroleum products.”

NNPC Ltd, in playing its role to guarantee energy security for the country supplied Nigerians with a total of 38.81 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol in 20 months.

The NNPC has remained the supplier of last resort with a mandate to guarantee National energy security.

To meet the energy requirements l the country, the NNPC Ltd emplaced the crude oil for product swap arrangement which entails value-for-value crude oil swap for product delivery.

Analysis of the petrol supply data showed that out of the 38.81 billion litres of PMS imported into the country, 22.35 billion litres were supplied in 2021 giving an average daily supply of 61 million litres.

The website had reported that based on analysis of the data, the volume of crude oil imported into the country and the amount recorded as under-recovery followed have been following similar trend.

For instance, in the Month of January last year, the NNPC imported 1.68 billion litres of petrol and recorded actual under-recovery of N34bn.

In February, March and April of last year, the importation of crude oil rose to 1.88 billion, 1.91 billion and 2.23 billion litres respectively, with under-recovery following similar upward trend of N61bn, N120bn and N149bn respectively.

In the month of May, crude oil importation dropped to 1.55 billion litres, before rising again in June and July to 1.94 billion litres, 1.99 billion litres and then dropped again to 1.73 billion litres and 1.52 billion litres in August and September respectively.

In the same period, the amount recorded as under-recovery followed the same pattern from N103bn in May to N143bn and N172bn in June and July before dropping to N149bn and N124bn in August and September of last year.

For October, November and December last year, the National Oil Company supplied Nigerians with 1.60 billion litres, 2.41 billion litres and 1.90 billion litres of petrol, while incurring N182bn, N321bn and N208bn as under-recovery during the period under review.

For the current year, the NNPC imported 1.81 billion litres of PMS into the country with about N195bn incurred as subsidy during the process.

In February, March, April and May, 1.79 billion, 2.69 billion, 2.98 billion and 1.44 billion litres of petrol were imported with subsidy put at N243bn, N566bn, N533bn and N357bn respectively.

For the months of June, 1.74 billion litres of PMS were imported with under recovery of N506bn while July and August saw the National Oil Company importing 2.27 billion and 1.74 billion litres of PMS with under-recovery of N586bn and N362bn respectively.

Further analysis indicated that peak period evacuations from the depot occurred on Fridays due to the anticipation of low or no activity in some depots over the weekend for maintenance and other purposes.

Conversely, the lowest evacuation periods are usually during the weekends, especially on Sundays.

Overall, as a result of the evacuation pattern in the month of August 2022, the average daily evacuation was 66.9 million litres per day, according to the figures.