According to information obtained from the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Federal Government spent about N173. 2 billion between 2019 and 2022 to equalize more than 11.6 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as gasoline.
However, outside of Lagos and Abuja, the cost of the commodity has hardly been equal across states despite the hundreds of billions spent on PMS price equalization. Since one hardly ever finds the commodity at the same price in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the price difference between states has persisted for years.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, reported in a document on the status of efforts to stop the smuggling of PMS across Nigerian borders that there had been 255,659 truck-outs.
“The minister explained that 66. 7 million litres of PMS was the average daily sufficiency during the period, adding that the total truck-out volume was 24,346,614,589 litres.
On the gas flare commercialisation programme, the document stated that the government had identified 48 flare sites, adding that the plan was to allocate them this year.