The National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that following President Bola Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidies in June, the nation’s monthly imports of petrol decreased by almost 1 billion liters.
According to the NBS statistics, the nation imported 2.09 liters of petroleum in January 2023 and 1.99 billion liters in February of the same year.
The previous year’s figures were 2.29 billion liters in March, 1.91 billion liters in April, and 2.01 billion liters in May.
Remember that on May 29, Tinubu removed the Premium Motor Spirit subsidy, which had a big impact on the product’s imports the following month.
In June, the first month after the subsidies ended, there was a decrease in the amount of PMS imported, to 1.64 billion liters.
When imports were cut to 1.45 billion litres in July, the decline became even more pronounced.
From 2.23 billion liters imported in August 2022 to 1.09 billion liters in August 2023, the amount of petrol imported into the nation decreased by over 1 billion liters annually.
According to the NBS data, Nigeria failed to generate one liter of PMS domestically in 2021, 2022, or the first part of 2023.
Nonetheless, because there were no operational oil refineries during that time, kerosene and diesel were produced locally.
According to the NBS, in H12023, PMS truck out was at 11.48 billion liters, representing a 5.83 per cent decline when compared to 12.19 billion liters recorded in the first half of 2022. These figures are part of the key highlights for the Petroleum Products Distribution Statistics Half Year 2023.
Additionally, local production of paraffin was 26.07 million litres as opposed to 22.33 million litres in the first half of 2022.
In the first half of 2023, 55.48 million litres of automotive petrol oil (diesel) were produced, which is more than the 50.19 million liters recorded in the same time of the previous year.
Even while PMS imports in H12023 were 11.94 billion litres as opposed to 11.56 billion litres in H12022, the decrease in June, July, and August demonstrated the impact of the subsidy removal as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company remains the only importer of fuel at the moment.
