Petrol Smugglers Made N17m Per Trip During Subsidy Regime—Kyari

By Adedapo Adesanya

The chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, has disclosed that petrol smugglers took advantage of the loopholes in the subsidy regime in the country to enrich their pockets.

Speaking in Abuja, the NNPC boss said cross-border smuggling was rampant due to the fuel subsidy, with smugglers making about N17 million per trip for taking about a 6,000-liter truck across the borders.

“In the last 47 years, PMS has always been subsidised and subsidy is creating arbitrage that means there is a difference between price in one location, lower than what it should be in another location,” he said.

“When Mr President announced the removal of subsidy in June, what he did was recalibrate the price. There is no longer any value in anyone taking the product across the border. If you do, you’re not going to make those profits than you do.

“In a 6,000-litre truck, you can gain up to N17 million from just one truck. How are you going to stop someone who with two trips can just easily make N17 million times two—which is the price of the truck itself?

“However, when you take a truck legally maybe N8 million, say, to Maiduguri, the legitimate value you have is less than N500,000. Why will I see N17 million and then take all the trouble go to Maiduguri, keep it in the fuel station for one month and then make N3 to N4 million?” he queried.

Although President Bola Tinubu initially announced the removal of petrol subsidies on May 29, 2023, many debated that the regime wasn’t phased out until last Friday, when the federal government announced the full deregulation of the downstream sector.

Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, now sells about N1,000 per litre in Lagos and other parts of the country. At NNPC retail stations in Lagos, the official price is N998 per litre and in Abuja, it is N1,030 per litre.

However, most independent marketers, who have now been authorised to buy their products anywhere, sell above the NNPC quoted prices.