Petrol Dominates Nigeria’s Oil Product Revenue

The oil sector is Nigeria’s main source of revenue, and while there are calls for diversification in the country’s exports, the oil sector continues to bring in a lot of revenue for the country.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited announced on Wednesday that Nigeria earned N2.56 trillion in revenue from oil-related products.

The company announced that in only 13 months, the country brought in N2.56 trillion in revenue from the sales of petrol, kerosene and diesel. Petrol and diesel are generally used to fuel generators or cars, while kerosene is used largely to cook (either with stoves or with firewood in some parts). The staggered power supply in many areas of the country will undoubtedly be a contributor to the high amount of petrol sales, as people would seek to fuel their generators for alternative power supply.

These figures were revealed by the NNPC to be contained in the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report for July 2021. According to a part of the report, the total revenue generated from the sale of white products (petrol, kerosene and diesel) between July 2020 and July 2021 sat at more than N2.563 trillion, with petrol (also known as Premium Motor Spirit, or PMS) making up about 99.6 percent of the total sales.

The report stated that in July 2021 alone, a total of 1.544 billion litres of petroleum products were sold and distributed by the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), with PPMC taking more than 99 percent of the entire volume.

Between July 2020 and July 2021, the total volume of petroleum products sold stood at 19.535 billion litres, with PMS (petrol) once again taking up 99% of the total volume.

This dominance by the petrol product underlines the long-standing reliance of the country on petrol (or PMS) for both internal use and export purposes. The reliance can be said to be forced, because many Nigerians have to turn to it due to the circumstances of the country. It can be argued that an improvement in the electricity situation will cause the reliance on petrol to be reduced.