The latest data on the amount spent on subsidising Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, released on Monday showed that the Government subsidised the commodity with N1.593tn between January and June 2022.
Figures obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL)’s presentation to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting for July 2022 showed that subsidies on petrol were implemented in June. Recall that the company transited from a public oil firm to a commercial entity last month.
It was also gathered that the NNPCL pumped N54.66bn into refinery rehabilitation during the six months period. The oil company also made it clear in July that subsidy on petrol was now a burden of the Federal Government and not its responsibility.
An analysis of the July presentation to FAAC showed that fuel subsidy or under-recovery/value shortfall, as described by NNPCL, rose to N1.593tn in the first half of 2022. Figures from the report indicated that the amounts spent as subsidies on the commodity in January, February and March were N210.38bn, N219.78bn and N245.77bn, respectively.
A total of N271.59bn, N327.1bn and N319.18bn were spent as subsidies in April, May and June respectively. On refinery rehabilitation, the oil company spent N9.11bn in January and made no expense in February and March. It invested another N9.11bn on the facility.
It spent N9.11bn in each of the months of April and May 2022 on refinery rehabilitation, while investing N18.22bn on the plant in June.
In April this year, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said the April 2023 completion date for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery was feasible and that the plant would refine 60,000 barrels of crude by early next year.
The NNPC officially signed the contract with Tecnimont SPA for the $1.5bn rehabilitation programme of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in April 2021 and had promised that the facility would be completed in 18 months.
