The Nigerian Downstream and Intermediate Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says it is collaborating with the Nigerian Customs Service to address the problem of cross-border gasoline smuggling.
NMDPRA said in a statement that there was enough gasoline of more than 1.6 billion liters as of January 26, both on land and at sea.
He said; “NNPC has also made a strong commitment to supply more PMS volume in the coming months to ensure national energy security and nationwide availability at a government-regulated price.
“The current distribution problem is compounded by the activities of cross-border smugglers, who divert PMS destined for the Nigerian market to neighboring countries where PMS prices are significantly higher than the Nigerian regulated price. We are engaged and collaborating with the Nigerian Customs Service to address this issue.”
The statement said; “Price arbitrage between Nigeria and neighboring countries has continued to grow due to inflation and the regional impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the global energy value chain, including international freight rates and freight charter rates. coastal boats.
“We want the public to know that the ongoing government effort to rehabilitate Nigeria’s strategic roads ahead of the rainy season has required diversion of tankers carrying petroleum products to alternative roads, increasing the time it takes to transit and the associated cost of transporting the product”.
NMDPRA and key stakeholders, including NNPC, have implemented several measures to address the issue, including: Modest adjustment to the cost of product transportation to address the impact of AGO’s high price on carriers, while providing diesel to merchants at a reduced price, automation of the product sales interface, installation of a monitoring system in collaboration with government security agencies for the distribution of products to points of sale, extended opening hours both in cargo depots such as at some selected service stations and rehabilitation of the critical fuel distribution road network through a tax credit scheme by the NNPC, regular stakeholder engagements, among others.
“We have strengthened our monitoring teams and the corresponding sanctions to control the activities of merchants who make mistakes and distort our planned flow of products to designated points of sale to benefit from price arbitrage. As a medium to long-term measure, cost-effective means of transportation are being implemented, including Autogas conversions and pipeline rehabilitation. This will be complemented by end-to-end process automation across the entire value chain. NMDPRA appreciates the collaborative efforts of some patriotic oil marketing companies who, despite obvious incentives to engage in illegal price arbitrage, have stood firm and operated responsibly within approved price limits.”
