The Petroleum Product Pricing Regulation Agency PPPRA has disclosed that it has issued petroleum product import contracts to marketers for the second quarter. This is the first of such since a public outcry forced the government to back down on plans to scrap consumer petrol subsidies in January.
Permits to import a total of 4.8 billion litres of gasoline in the second quarter of this year were issued to 42 marketers, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) said in a statement. Local units of oil majors Exxon Mobil and Total, NNPC and Oando were among those approved to import gasoline. Several smaller local firms also made the list.
The gasoline market has been awaiting clarity from PPPRA on how the new import regime will work since the government attempted to remove petrol import subsidies on January 1, but was forced to partly reinstate them. Nigeria’s government pays importers to bring in refined gasoline and then sells it to the public at subsidised prices. Efforts to reform or scrap the system have repeatedly been scuppered by public opposition.
At the end of a week of mass protests against a near doubling in fuel costs, the government also ordered several probes into graft in the subsidy scheme and other areas of the oil industry, a major focus of public anger. Nigeria’s petrol import business is one of the key areas within its energy industry that has been riddled with corruption, according to government officials and oil sector audits.
