Customs DG raises doubts over NNPC’s 60m litres daily petrol consumption claim

The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), has questioned claim by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, that 60 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, are consumed daily in Nigeria.

Ali wondered that, if the NNPC puts daily consumption of PMS at 60 million litres, then why does it allow 98 million litres to be lifted daily from the depots?

He raised the poser when he appeared before the House Committee on Finance for the hearing on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (2023 – 2025).

The Customs boss also dismissed claims that smuggling of PMS contributes to the huge amounts being paid for subsidy.

He said: “The issue is not the smuggling of petroleum. I have always argued this with NNPC. If we are consuming 60 million litres of petrol per day, by their own computation, why in the world would you allow the lifting of 98 million litres per day?

“That computation, to me, is not believable, because scientifically you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow I will fill my tank with the same quantity of fuel. And if I’m running a petrol station today, if I go to Minna depot and lift, and I’m taking to Kaduna, I may reach Kaduna in the evening and offload that product; there’s no way I could have sold that petrol for you to account that that has been expended.

“So how do we get to 60 million every day? If you say this petrol is smuggled, if you release 98 million litres, and then we use 60 million litres, the balance will be 38 million litres. How many trucks will carry 38 million litres? Everyday. That’s almost 500. Which road are they following? Where are they carrying this thing to?”

A full tanker load of petrol is between 33,000 and 40,000 litres. To haul 38 million litres of petrol, therefore, will require the deployment of about 1,151 petrol tankers to do so.

And doing such daily means we must have a very busy border or several illegal means of doing taking them out of the country, which would have been discovered.