The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has stated in a report that Nigeria’s monthly petrol import has dropped by about 1 billion litres over a seven-month period.
According to the report, the country imported 2.09 litres of petrol in January 2023, while 1.99 billion litres was imported in February of the same year. In March, 2.29 billion litres were imported; 1.91 billion litres in April and 2.01 billion litres in May 2023.
However, following the removal of petrol subsidy by President Bola Tinubu when he took oath of office on May 29, 2023, the quantity of petrol imported in June, the first post-subsidy month, dropped to 1.64 billion litres and in July it reduced to 1.45 billion litres.
The downward trend continued in August when 1.09 billion litres were imported, a reduction of over 1 billion litres year-on-year, compared to the 2.23 billion litres imported in August 2022.
The NBS report showed that Nigeria did not produce any petrol in 2021, 2022, and in the first half of 2023, due to a lack of functioning oil refineries.
However, diesel and kerosene were produced locally during the period.
In its key highlights for the Petroleum Products Distribution Statistics Half Year 2023, the NBS said in H12023, PMS truck out stood at 11.48 billion litres, indicating a 5.83 per cent decrease when compared to 12.19 billion litres recorded in the first half of 2022.
Also, 26.07m litres of kerosene were locally produced compared to 22.33m litres in the first half of 2022.
For Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), 55.48m litres were produced in the first half of 2023, higher relative to 50.19m litres reported in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Though the 11.94 billion litres of PMS imported in H12023 was higher compared to 11.56 billion litres in H12022, the effect of the subsidy removal was evident in the drop in June, July and August.
