Nigeria spent N2.596 trillion to import 24.4 billion litres of petroleum products consumed in the country last year, a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
Analysis of the NBS petroleum products imports statistics for the last quarter of 2016 released at the weekend showed that the country spent N2.019 trillion on petrol, N505.8 billion on diesel and N70.76 billion on kerosene imports last year.
Premium motor spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol dominated the 24.42 billion litres volume of petroleum product imported with 18.81 billion litres. 4.89 billion litres of diesel was shipped into the country while 713.79 million litres of kerosene was imported in the year under review.
Fuel imports often account for around 16 to 20 percent of Nigeria’s total imports, according to NBS data, ranking the country among the world’s top 15 importers of fuel.
Despite being Africa’s top crude oil producer, Nigeria imports more than 80 percent of its petroleum products and it is the only major oil exporting country that imports the largest volume of petrol in the world because of its low domestic refining capacity.
Analysis of the NBS showed that the month of May 2016 recorded the highest volumes of petrol imported into the country at 2.02 billion litres valued at N249.88 billion.
“This coincides with the May 11th, 2016 official announcement by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, on the deregulation of PMS importation aimed at improving its supply nationwide,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, latest figures from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have revealed that the country’s crude oil sales proceeds increased by $74.9m or N22.84bn in November 2016.
This, however, was despite the 8.4 per cent drop in the international market price of Brent crude in the month under review. Nigeria produces and exports Brent crude.
In November 2016, the country earned a total of $96.3m from the sale of crude oil, up from the $21.4m that was made in the preceding month.
An analysis of latest industry data from the NNPC showed that the increase in crude oil earnings came at a time when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ referenced basket price shed about $4.65 per barrel to finish at $43.22 per barrel in November.
The NNPC further stated that Brent was down by 8.4 per cent to finish at $47.08 per barrel, as it noted that OPEC had agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 2017, and secured a reduction of 558,000 barrels per day from non-OPEC members.