Author: oilpriceng

After many years of opacity and difficulty in determining the country’s actual fuel consumption, the regulatory authority of the Nigerian petroleum industry, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, yesterday, put national demand for Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, at 38.2 million daily.

Determining Nigeria’s actual fuel consumption had over the years, been a herculean task, especially as the figure remains critical in determining the country’s revenue, as well as the amount the country is spending on fuel subsidy.

Prior to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s fuel consumption figure had been put at between 30 million and 35 million litres. It later rose to 60 million litres per day, 55 million litres, while until today, no one actually knows the country’s daily fuel consumption.

As a result of this, the Federal Government set up a committee to determine Nigeria’s actual fuel consumption using advanced information and communication technology, as well as improved surveillance.

In its National Stock Reports released Wednesday, the DPR stated that as February 25, 2020, the cumulative stock of PMS at depots across the country was 915.772 million litres, dropping by 3.15 per cent from 945.6 million litres recorded February 24, 2020.

The DPR disclosed that the PMS stock was owned by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, the downstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; as well as major and independent oil marketers.

The DPR attributed the decline in national PMS stock levels to vessel discharges and truck out activities across the depots.

It said “As at 25th February 2020, the cumulative depot stock of PMS at the depots was  915,771,566 litres (combined PMS stock owned by PPMC, major and independent marketers) vis-à-vis  945,604,305 litres on 24th February 2020 indicating a decrease of depot PMS stock due to vessel discharges and truck out activities (Table A and B) respectively at the depots.

“Applying the estimated daily national demand of 38,200,000 (thirty-eight million two hundred thousand) litres, available depot PMS stock of 915,771,566 litres is sufficient for 24 days.”

The DPR report further stated that as at February 25^th, 2020, stock levels in 40 depots in Lagos stood at 539.99 million litres; while in Calabar/Eket, 82.97 million litres of PMS were available in 11 depots across the state.

In Warri, Port Harcourt, Umuahia and Kaduna, PMS stock levels stood at 146.94 million litres, 129.19 million litres, 6.99 million litres and 9.68 million respectively.

Furthermore, the report disclosed that on February 25, 2020, as at 600hours, seven vessels discharged 61.055 million litres of PMS at depots in the Lagos Zone, bringing PMstock levels in Lagos to 537.95 million litres after daily truck out.

In its 2019 Benchmarking Exercise Report, released weekend, the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter, NNRC, confirmed the difficulty that had persisted in determining Nigeria’s actual fuel consumption and also highlighted recent efforts by the government to reverse this trend.

It said, “In addition, steps were observed to increase the monitoring of the supply and distribution of refined petroleum to have a fair assessment of the country’s consumption level. In October 2019, the government reportedly launched the automated Downstream Operations and Financial Monitoring Centre (DOFMC) through NNPC.

“According to the public affairs unit of the NNPC, DOFMC is part of a five agency operation to ‘monitor products supply and distribution across the country and check unwholesome practices with a view to authenticating the actual volume of products imported and consumed in the country.’”

Vanguard

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has signed an agreement with over 27 operators in the downstream sector to check fluctuations in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.

Depot facility operators, union leaders of retail outlets and other downstream operators agreed that petrol would be sold at the stipulated ex-depot price of N148.17 per litre.

Port Harcourt Zonal Operations Controller of DPR, Bassey Nkanga, told The Guardian that the move would end an unnecessary hike in prices of petroleum products.

Retail outlets at the meeting organised by DPR in Port Harcourt, blamed the staggering prices of petrol on failure of depot operators to sell the product at a uniform price, stressing that the development forced operators to sell according to how they buy the product.

“It is time to bring all stakeholders together to operate on the same page. The Federal Government has not increased the price of petrol, and as such, anyone who contravenes the rules will be sanctioned. With the agreement to sell petrol at N148.17, no retail outlet should sell petrol above N165,” he said.

After the stakeholders signed the agreement, Nkanga said: “By this, we have agreed to sell petrol at depot price of N148.17. So, you are mandated to supply the product at approved price and if pumps dispense with 0.1 per cent difference at retail stations, we will shut down such stations.

“This time it became necessary because of speculations around the price of petroleum products. We really needed to bring ourselves together to be on the same page, because the Federal Government has not increased the price of petroleum products. 

“Marketers are sabotaging the system. So, since the Federal Government has not increased the price of petrol, nobody has the right to sell above the former price.” 

Nkanga added that depot operators should not sell above stipulated ex-depot price to marketers and retail outlet operators should not also sell beyond what they are supposed to sell to members of the public.

“Since the N148.17 has been stipulated, there will be no increase. The Federal Government has restated that it has not increased and so we expect everyone to sell at the stipulated price,” he stressed.

He also frowned on hoarding, stressing that any person or retail outlets caught hoarding the products would be dealt with accordingly.

“We talked about selling products to unlicensed facilities. We earlier sent out letters to depot operators to alert them that we will not tolerate any form of disguise in selling petroleum products to unlicensed persons,” he added.