The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation saw its revenue from petrol sales plunge by 47.38 per cent to N107.61bn in April as supply dropped amid the coronavirus lockdown and the reduction in the pump price of the product.

The Petroleum Products Marketing Company is principally engaged in the supply and marketing of refined petroleum products to the marketers/retailers on behalf of the NNPC.

Following the sharp drop in global crude oil prices, the pump price of petrol, which is still being regulated by the government, was reduced to N125 per litre from N145 per litre on March 18, 2020.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency further announced on March 31 a price band of N123.50-N125 per litre of petrol for the month of April.

The latest data obtained from the NNPC showed that a total sum of N107.61bn was made on the sale of white products by the PPMC in April, down from N192.37bn in March and N211.41bn in February.

The corporation said a total of 990.17 million litres of white products were sold and distributed by the PPMC in April, compared with 1,647.89 million litres in March.

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It said, “This comprised 941.11 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, 47.16 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil and 1.78 million litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene.

There was no sale of special product in the month.

“Total sale of white products for the period April 2019 to April 2020 stood at 21,027.43 million litres and PMS accounted for 20,834.36 million litres or 99.08 per cent.”

According to the NNPC, 1.81 billion litres of PMS were supplied in April into the country through the Direct Sale Direct Purchase arrangement as against the 2.25 billion litres of PMS supplied in March.

It said no white product (PMS and DPK) was produced in April from the nation’s refineries “and apparently for the past 10 consecutive months.”

“The lack of production is due to ongoing rehabilitation works at the refineries,” the corporation added.

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, relies largely on importation for refined petroleum products as its refineries have remained in a state of disrepair for many years despite several reported repairs.

The refineries, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have continued to operate far below the installed capacity.

In the first term of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), the NNPC had planned to rehabilitate the refineries to attain a minimum of 90 per cent capacity utilisation.

The plan was to use third party financiers and the original refinery builders to provide the requisite funding and technical support.

However, after over one and a half years, negotiations with financiers were stalled in December 2018 due to varying positions on key commercial terms.

Kyari, who took over the NNPC leadership in July 2019, had reiterated his plan to revamp the refineries and end fuel importation by 2023.