TheCable

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says the average daily truck out for 2022 is 62.95 million litres per day.

Adebayo Adeniyi, head of finance and account, NMDPRA, disclosed this on Monday while appearing before the house of representatives committee on finance considering the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) said citizens consume about 60 million litres of petrol daily.

Adeniyi said NMDPRA had projected an average of N443, N272 and N250 per litre for petrol in the next three years.

“The average daily truck out for 2022 is 62.95 million litres per day. This is from an actual truck. Based on our projection for 2023-2025, we are projecting a 3.2 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP),” he said.

“We used that to project the daily truck out for 2023-2025. On the average expected open price, today’s subsidy still reigns, but we expect that deregulation will come at a point. Based on an average — if deregulated, the price of petroleum will be about N272 per litre.

“However, from 2023-2024, we project that the open market price will go to as high as N443 per litre. And this is based on changes in the dollar rate and the Ukraine war that is going on.

“For 2025, our projection for the price of PMS is N250, based on the hope that the dollar would have stabilised and the Ukraine war would have ended.”

When asked to comment on the discrepancies of petrol consumption figures of 62 and 98 million litres by the Nigeria Customs Service and the NNPC, respectively, Adeniyi insisted on the authority’s figure.

“Quite a number of statistics or people giving out all sorts of figures. Major information comes from the defunct Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). What we gave you is what is obtainable as the actual truck out. When we say truck-out, we mean from the depot to the retail outlets. I don’t know where other figures may be coming out,” Adeniyi added.

“I cannot speculate on that. All the depots operating in Nigeria are discharging products. If 1000 are discharging, it means that it.”

In his remarks, Saidu Abdullahi, deputy chairman of the committee, who presided over the session, charged the agency to meet with other agencies to harmonise the figures.

“Even yesterday, the figure NNPC Limited quoted was not in tandem with your figure. You people need to reconcile your position. If you have information being churned out different information is being churned out by different agencies. You are not giving us room to appreciate what you are doing,” he said.

“It now gives room to allow for imagination. Some people will start thinking, where are we getting it wrong? I will want you to use this platform to educate Nigerians.”