201
By Tracy Moses
The Federal Government has not imported a litre of petrol since January 2025, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has confirmed.
Speaking on Tuesday, 15th April, 2025 during the “Meet the Press” session with State House Correspondents and Presidential Media Aides, NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, revealed that local fuel supply has grown by an impressive 670% between August 2024 and April 2025.
Ahmed attributed the rise in local output to the phased reactivation of the Port Harcourt Refining Company beginning in late November, alongside increased production from modular refineries across the country.
The CEO noted that following the removal of fuel subsidies on May 29, 2023, daily demand for petrol dropped sharply, from 44.6m litres in August 2024 to just 14.7m litres by mid-April 2025, a decline of 30m litres or roughly 67%.
Local production, which had been nearly negligible as of August 2024, reached 3.4 million litres per day by September and surged to 26.2m litres daily by early April. Despite the improvement, supply only exceeded the government’s benchmark of 50m litres per day in two months: November (56m litres) and February (52.3m litres). March saw a slight dip to 51.5m litres, and the first half of April trailed at 40.9m litres per day.
Ahmed clarified that import licenses are granted strictly based on domestic supply needs and assured that the volatility in the international oil market poses no threat to Nigeria’s 2025 national budget.