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Nigeria implements a partial liberalisation of fuel prices

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) of Nigeria has instituted a “modulation mechanism” to allow fuel prices fluctuations following the international crude oil market, without providing further details. In addition, the government has lowered the price of gasoline by 14%, from NGN145/l (US$39c/l) to NGN125/l (US$34c/l).

In 2016, the government announced the end of fuel subsidies and partially liberalised the downstream industry, relaxing the price-fixing mechanism for petroleum products, allowing the entry of new players and deregulating importation procedures. However, the PPPRA sets the price of fuels. Since then, the country de facto restored fuel subsidies by allowing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to deduct as part of its operational cost the excess cost above the price ceiling.

In 2018, Nigeria imported 21 Mt of refined products to cover most of its domestic consumption, coming mostly from the Netherlands (34%) and Belgium (25%). The country has a total refining capacity of almost 500,000 bbl/d, but most of it is not operational.