Nigeria's NNPCL is the country's lone importer of gasoline while oil marketers struggle with FX restrictions

Four months after imports were made available to private parties, Nigeria's state oil company NNPC Ltd., according to its chief executive, is once again the only importer of gasoline.While taking part in the current Energy Labour Summit organized by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja, Mele Kyari made this declaration. In addition, Kyari emphasized that despite investor concerns of a de facto return because pump prices have not changed since July despite an increase in oil prices of more than 30%, the government has not returned a decades-old gasoline subsidy that was abolished at the end of May. In Kyari's opinion, the NNPCL is once more the sole importer of gasoline because private businesses cannot access foreign cash.“We are the only company importing petrol into the country. None of them can do it today. For them, access to foreign exchange is difficult. We create foreign exchange (FX), therefore we have access to FX, while their access to FX is limited,” he stated.