Minister of State, Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has attempted to clear the doubts expressed by oil and gas operators, economists, as well as officials of global organisations that Nigeria has continued to subsidise petrol, despite President Bola Tinubu’s declaration to the contrary on May 29, 2023.
Among those who insisted that the federal government was still paying subsidies in recent times were former Bauchi State Governor Ịsa Yuguda; former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai; and President, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo.
Others were Chief Executive, Pinnacle Oil, Robert Dickerman, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others.
But speaking on Channels Television on the back of the 25th anniversary of Nigeria’s democracy, Lokpobiri stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had the statutory responsibility to step in anytime things were going out of hand.
The minister also said he had been told by the national oil company that Nigeria’s total daily petrol consumption now hovered between 50 million litres and 60 million litres. However, the figure contradicted the one given by the regulator, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), in October last year.
