President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said that Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption figure is higher than what the country consumes, stressing that the petroleum sector is riddled with corruption.

Dangote said the figure was bloated by some individuals for personal gains, especially during the fuel subsidy era.

However, while marketers agreed with Dangote on Monday that there is corruption in the petroleum sector, they argued that the daily petrol consumption volume fluctuates and cannot be put at a single figure, saying it should be around 40 million barrels per day.

Also, crude oil refiners said there should be fresh findings to determine the country’s real consumption figure; otherwise, the debate and argument would continue for a long time.

Speaking with members of the Global CEO Africa who visited the Dangote Petroleum Refinery recently, Dangote said he did not want to venture into the petroleum sector because of the corruption in the system. According to him, the country’s daily petrol consumption was not up to 40 million litres.

The PUNCH recalls that the Nigerian Midstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority said in the fourth quarter of 2024 that the Yuletide pushed petrol consumption figures to 50 million litres per day.

The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, disclosed that the country’s daily petrol consumption hovered around 45 million and 50 million litres at that time.

“The current volume that goes out in the market is ranging between 45 and 50 million litres, including the buffer that we have. But currently it’s ranging between 45 and 50 million litres per day. We see that a lot of activity is going on now because it is normally a high-demand period in the fourth quarter, leading to the yuletide. Still, after that, we can possibly see the consumption go down just because of the prices,“ Ahmed said last year.

In February, the NMDPRA said the figure fell from 66 million litres per day in 2023 to 50 million litres after the removal of the subsidy by President Bola Tinubu.

“Let me reconfirm that from year to year, we saw an increase in the demand for PMS by 2021, 2022, up to 2023, and just before the current administration came in, the daily PMS supply sufficiency was always more than 60 million, averaging about 66 million a day for PMS.

“Following Mr President’s withdrawal of subsidy, the announcement on May 29, 2023, we immediately saw a steep decline in consumption, and between then and as we speak, we’ve continued to do plus or minus 50 million litres. That’s a considerable reduction in volumes,” the Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure at NMDPRA, Ogbugo Ukoha, said in February.

However, Dangote vehemently disagreed with the NMDPRA on the figures, saying they did not reflect Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption. Dangote said Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption figure is 33 million litres, 17 million litres below NMDPRA’s data.

He stated that the figure was inflated because the product was once subsidised, even as high as 90 million barrels at a time, noting that the country does not have that many vehicles on its roads.

“The fuel requirement of Nigeria, which we believe, based on our own estimation, is a consumption of 33 million litres per day. But, you know, because it was a subsidised item, they bloated the numbers, at one point, even to 90 million litres. But we don’t have that number of vehicles. So, real consumption is about 33 million litres of petrol,” Dangote stated.

He noted that daily aviation fuel consumption was the lowest, with 3 million litres a day, due to the few flights in the country’s aviation industry. The billionaire said diesel consumption was 10 million litres and not the 14 million litres being claimed by the regulator.

“So in all, we believe 46 million litres (of petrol, diesel and jet fuel) would satisfy these three products’ needs while we are going to produce 104 million litres every day,” he said.

He stressed that 58 million litres of the refinery’s daily fuel production would be for export, saying the facility would produce 34 million tonnes per annum. Fielding questions from the 26 chief executive officers from six African countries, Africa’s richest man described oil as a ’mafia business’ he did not want to dabble in initially.

The Kano-born entrepreneur stated that oil had been very messy in Nigeria and riddled with so much corruption. He disclosed, however, that the Dangote Group decided to build a refinery as the only way to stop Africa’s dependence on fuel imports.

“In fact, oil is not something that we wanted to do as a group because oil has been very, very messy in Nigeria. So, we didn’t want to get into oil because there’s so much corruption. It’s a mafia business, really, and we didn’t want to go in there. It was just much later when we realised that…” he said.

At the time of filing this report, the NMDPRA has yet to respond to a media inquiry seeking its reaction to Dangote’s comments since Sunday.

Consumption varies, says IPMAN

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said the daily petrol consumption figures could swing up and down sometimes, depending on the season. However, the association said there are corrupt practices in the oil sector.

The National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, said the discrepancy in the figures shouldn’t be a problem once there is fuel availability. He acknowledged that fuel consumption figures dropped after the Federal Government removed subsidies and launched the Compressed Natural Gas initiative.

He recalled that the NMDPRA told them at a meeting that the figure had dropped from 70 million litres per day to 50 million litres.

“Most importantly, our focus is ensuring that there is availability of petroleum products at any particular point in time and that marketers load their tickets so there is uninterrupted supply of petroleum products in the nooks and crannies of this country. You will believe that the liberalisation of the market and the removal of subsidies have mostly reduced oil consumption. The Presidential directive on CNG and LPG has led to the conversion of some machines from fuel to gas, drastically reducing the usage of petrol products in Nigeria.

“From 70 million litres to 50 million litres, which the NMDPRA told us in the last meeting we had with the NSA, it is still within the range of 35 – 40 million litres. So, I also believe that it depends on the activities within the country, especially during the festive period. We expect the volume to go up and down. I don’t think there is any discrepancy between the figures. The most important thing is a constant supply of fuel,” he said.

He added that the issue of fuel smuggling had been curtailed by security agencies, “so we should be within the range of 40 million litres per day.” Ukadike agreed with Dangote that the petroleum sector is riddled with corruption, including sharp practices, round-tripping, profiteering and others.

“I agree in totality that there is corruption in the sector. The import of petroleum products into the country gave rise to a lot of corruption and other sharp practices. That is why the President also encourages local refineries like Dangote to refine so that some of those doors which they use in sucking the economy of the country will be shut down.

“We cannot be producing crude oil and be exporting petroleum products, paying subsidies, while most oil traders are round-tripping and profiteering at the same time,” he said.

The IPMAN spokesman urged the NMDPRA to concentrate more on ensuring that operators in the oil industry comply with the rules and regulations. “But the issue of consumption sometimes varies. It might go down this month, it might increase next month. So, that should not be an issue at all,” he added.

CORAN reacts

The Crude Oil Refineries Association of Nigeria said there was a need for fresh findings from an independent body to know the actual fuel consumption in the country. Until then, CORAN spokesperson, Eche Idoko, said the debate would continue unending.

According to him, Dangote gave his figure because he is a producer, while the NMDPRA’s figure is based on its coverage of the sector. However, Idoko added that the NMDPRA could not confirm that everything it recorded is consumed within the country.

He recalled that the NMDPRA had once disclosed that there were smuggling challenges which it was fighting with security agencies. “It is a debate that would go on until an independent body like the National Bureau of Statistics steps in and conducts another research to know our consumption. Our borders are porous, and that is a challenge to determining the actual consumption figure,” he stated.

The PUNCH recalls that Dangote once said the mafia in oil was stronger than the one in drugs. He said this amid allegations that some international oil companies were collaborating with regulators to sabotage the $20bn refinery.

Speaking last year at the Afreximbank annual meetings and AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in Nassau, The Bahamas, he said the group he labelled as stronger than the mafia in drugs tried several times to stop the refinery from becoming a reality.

“Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil is stronger than the mafia in drugs,” he said. When asked if the group was local or foreign, he said, “Both. There is a local one and a global one. It is all mixed up. They tried all sorts, but you know, I’m a person who has been fighting all my life. So, I think it’s part of my life to fight.”

Last year, the NMDPRA boss, Ahmed and Dangote disagreed with each other over fuel importation and fuel quality. The Dangote Group accused the NMDPRA of issuing licences for the importation of “dirty” fuel into the country.

Reacting to the allegation, Ahmed argued that it was the Dangote fuel that had the largest content of sulphur. He revealed then that the refinery had not been licensed, stating that it was still at the pre-commissioning stage.

“The claim by some media houses that there were steps to scuttle the Dangote refinery is not so. The Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licensed yet; we haven’t licensed it yet. They are still in the pre-commissioning. I think they have about 45 per cent completion,” he declared in June 2024.

Speaking about quality, he said, “In terms of quality, currently the AGO quality in terms of sulphur is the lowest as far as the West African requirement of 50 ppm is concerned.

“Dangote refinery and some modular refineries, like Waltersmith refinery and Aradel refinery, are producing between 650 to 1,200ppm. So, in terms of quality, their product is much inferior to the imported quality,” he alleged.

Ahmed came under heavy criticism as he was accused of demarketing local fuel producers. Reacting, Dangote challenged Ahmed to take his product to any laboratory to test its quality. He emphasised that findings had debunked claims made by Ahmed that imported diesel surpasses domestically refined products.

He challenged the regulator to compare the quality of refined products from his refinery with those imported, advocating for an impartial assessment to determine what best serves the interests of Nigerians.

“We produce the best diesel in Nigeria. It is disheartening that instead of safeguarding the market, the regulator is undermining it. Our doors are open for the regulator to conduct tests on our products anytime; transparency is paramount to us. It would be beneficial for the regulator to showcase its laboratory to the world so that Nigerians can compare. Our interest is Nigeria first because if Nigeria doesn’t grow, we have limited capacity for growth.”

Dangote argued that the imported products being encouraged by Ahmed have failed in tests, saying most of the importers have fake certificates because the owners of the laboratories have been told what to write.

There was another subtle clash between Dangote and the NMDPRA in February following claims by the regulator that the local refineries could meet just 50 per cent of the nation’s fuel consumption.



Dangote responded by countering this claim, saying he had enough fuel to satisfy local consumption and export over 50 per cent to foreign buyers.

“We can satisfy more than the local needs of Nigeria. As we speak, we have more than half a billion litres of petrol. We have more than N600bn worth of stocks here in the refinery. We have more than enough. The refinery is producing enough refined products, like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements,” he stated in February as a response to Ahmed’s comment.

To Dangote, the figure was allegedly bloated to justify fuel importation. In his case against the NMDPRA seeking an end to fuel importation, Dangote said the refinery could meet the country’s fuel needs, so there should be no more importation.