Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, says private companies can now begin the importation of fuel into the country in June.
Reuters reported that this followed NNPC’s termination of crude oil swap contracts and will begin to pay cash for petrol imports.
Kyari stated that with the new regime, less petrol will be imported directly by the NNPC while private companies will now import the bulk of the product.
“In the last four months, we practically terminated all direct sale direct purchase (DSDP) contracts. And we now have an arm’s-length process where we can pay cash for the imports,” Kyari told Reuters on Saturday.
In the DSDP contracts, Nigeria’s crude is being sold to refiners, who will in turn supply NNPC with an equivalent worth of petroleum products for distribution nationwide.
The termination of crude swap contracts is part of the Tinubu-led administration’s plans to deregulate the petroleum market and reduce the burden on government finances by removing subsidies completely.
On May 29, during his inauguration, President Tinubu announced the removal of subsidy—“subsidy is gone”.
This immediately threw the country into fuel scarcity amid high prices being set for petrol across the country.
A litre of petrol now sells for between N488 to N537—from the south to the north.
