Daily, an estimated seven million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, valued at N1, 085t is smuggled from Nigeria to neighbouring West African countries.
With daily consumption of about 52 million litres of petrol per day according to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), The Guardian understands that only about 45 million litres are eventually circulated within the country while approximately seven million litres are smuggled to countries where the product is sold for higher turnover.
Neighbouring Chad sells the cheapest petrol at the equivalent of N322, and industry sources told The Guardian that using N300 per litre as the average figure, Nigeria loses N155 per litre, which translates to the N1, 085t day for seven million litres.
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This comes as the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Abdulkadir Saidu, said plans were underway by the agency to begin infrastructure audit in the downstream sector in this second half of 2019. The audit exercise, he said will attract investment into the sector.
Indications have also emerged that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), may begin auditing how the country spends proceeds of its earnings from the sale of crude oil.
WHILE Nigeria sells a litre of petrol for N145 (40 cents), the product sells for N347 (96 cents) in both Togo and Benin Republic. It is N322 (89 cents) in Chad; N351 (97 cents) in Niger; N391 ($1.08 cents) in Cameroon; N286 (79 Cents) in Liberia/Sierra Leone; N405 ($1.12 cents) in Burkina Faso; N376 ($1.04) in Guinea, and N376 ($1.94) in Cote d’Ivoire.
Curiously, the product also goes for N360 ($1) in Ghana, N481 ($1.33) in Cape Verde and N441 ($1.22) in Mali.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an industry expert said: “We can see that figures do not lie. How can Nigeria survive when it pays for the petroleum consumption of more than five countries? If the prevailing price of crude oil remains below $70 by the end of this year, Nigeria will slip back into recession by the end of the first quarter of 2020.”