Nigerian Senate rejects NMDPRA fuel import records

The Nigerian Senate Committee on Public Accounts has rejected the 2022 and 2023 Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) import records provided by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). The rejection follows significant discrepancies between the NMDPRA figures and those reported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL).

According to NMDPRA records, 3.29 billion litres of PMS were imported in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres in 2023. In contrast, NNPCL reported 6.27 billion litres for 2022 and 3.88 billion litres for 2023. While NMDPRA representatives characterized these differences as slight and subject to reconciliation, committee members described the disparities—some exceeding 50 per cent—as wide, suspicious, and disturbing.

The committee has resolved to summon the heads of the NMDPRA, NNPCL, and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) to explain the inconsistencies and facilitate a reconciliation of the data.