…As Nigeria crude oil production falls to 1.57mbpd record low
Nigeria’s fuel pricing agency, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has said that the country incurs an average of N45.87 as subsidy on every litre of petrol consumed in the country. This comes as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reports that Nigeria’s crude oil production fell to a record low of 1.57 million barrels per day as at last December.
While the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the sole importer of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, into Nigeria since over two years when government took over the role, the PPPRA is the Nigerian government agency that regulates the prices of petroleum products.
Data from the agency showed that PPPRA through the NNPC spent an average of N45.87/litre as subsidy in the first 10 days of 2020. The national oil company has however, repeatedly classified its subsidy spending on petrol as under-recovery on the grounds that only the National Assembly has budgetary powers to approve subsidy.
The PMS pricing templates from the PPPRA for January 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10 put the Expected Open Market Price for a litre of petrol at N182.05, N182.28, N183.5, N179.5, N172.93 and N174.52 on the respective days. But the ex-depot price for collection of the commodity on each of the stated days remained N133.28 per litre.
Investigations showed that the difference between the EOMP and the EdPC for each of the identified days were N48.77, N49, N50.22, N46.32, N39.65 and N41.27, while their average stood at N45.87. It indicated that the federal government, through its oil corporation, currently spends an average of about N45.87 on each litre of petrol consumed across the country.
This came as additional industry data showed that crude prices dipped marginally on Wednesday, as both the cost of Brent, the crude on which Nigeria’s oil is priced, as well as commodities in the OPEC basket decreased in prices.
The commodity had traded for $64.49 per barrel the preceding day, after dropping from a high of about $70 per barrel few days ago. Crude grades in the OPEC basket also reduced in prices, as they lost $0.97 and fell to $66.07 per barrel.
Chibisi Ohakah
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