Page 11 - AfrOil Week 16 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

NNPC says Abuja spent NGN396.72bn

on gasoline subsidies in 2M-2022

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S federal government spent NGN4 trillion ($9.65bn) on the fuel subsidy
NGN396.72bn on domestic gasoline subsidies this year. Vanguard made note of this figure
in the first two months of the year, according to and also referred to previous statements from
new data released by Nigerian National Petro- Nigeria’s Minister of Information Lai Moham-
leum Co. (NNPC). med, who has reported that Abuja spent a total
The figure reflects the general upward trend of NGN10.413 trillion ($25.12bn) on subsidy
in subsidy costs, which have gone up consider- payments between 2006 and 2019.
ably within the last few years, Vanguard said on Exchange rates and oil prices are both major
Tuesday, April 19. It pointed out that Abuja had considerations for Nigeria’s downstream sector.
spent NGN350bn on the subsidy in 2019, rising The West African country is a major producer
to NGN450bn in 2020 and NGN1.573 trillion of crude oil, but it does not produce enough
in 2021, equivalent to $844.39mn, $1.09bn and refined fuels to cover domestic demand and is
$3.79bn respectively at current exchange rates. highly dependent on imports. As a result, the
The amount of the subsidy has risen in abso- relative strength of its currency and fluctuations
lute terms, not just because the naira has lost in world oil markets directly affect the size of its
ground relative to the US dollar but also because fuel bills – and, by extension, the amount of sub-
world oil prices are higher now than they were in sidies it must pay to keep domestic prices low. ™
2019, the newspaper reported.
Nigeria’s government was supposed to
phase out the gasoline subsidy this year, in line
with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry
Act (PIA) adopted by Parliament last summer
and signed into law by President Muhammad
Buhari last August. However, officials in Abuja
have decided to suspend enforcement of these
provisions of the new oil and gas law, owing to
concerns about the social and economic con-
sequences of higher fuel prices. They have not
said whether they will make any serious attempt
to return to the issue before Nigeria’s next pres-
idential elections, which are scheduled to take
place in February 2023.
In the meantime, Nigeria’s Parliament has
authorised the federal government to spend Nigeria does not produce enough gasoline to cover domestic demand (Photo: NNPC)

Report: Angolan oil output went

up month on month in March

ANGOLA ANGOLA extracted a total of 35.417mn barrels fewer days in February than in March.
of crude oil in the month of March, up by 9.5% The largest single source of oil production in
on the February figure of 32.327mn barrels, Pet- March was the offshore Block 17, which yielded
roAngola, a newsletter published by PWQ-En- 381,786 bpd. Block 0 and Block 32 took second
ergy Consulting, said in its latest monthly report. and third place, with output averaging 161,942
Daily production rates, meanwhile, came to bpd and 145,716 bpd, respectively.
1.142mn barrels per day (bpd) in March. This The report also noted that Angola had con-
was down nearly 11% on the February average tinued to sell its most popular varieties of crude
of 1.155mn bpd. This contrast with the monthly oil at a premium to Brent, the most common
figure stemmed from the fact that there are European benchmark, in the month of March.

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