Six Marketers, 720,000 Metric Tons, and a Very Uncomfortable Question for Dangote
Summary
The Federal Government has issued fresh petrol import licences to six petroleum marketers, authorising the importation of 720,000 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit into Nigeria a move that marks a significant policy reversal and has reignited one of the most consequential debates in the country's energy sector. The licences, issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, went to NIPCO, AA Rano, Matrix, Shafa, Pinnacle, and Bono with each allocated specific import volumes totalling 720,000 metric tons combined. The NMDPRA insists it never banned importation and that energy security remains its top priority, describing the move as a dual-input strategy combining domestic refining with imported supply to ensure stability. The Dangote Refinery, which had been supplying the vast majority of Nigeria's fuel needs, is not happy and has made that known.
The Federal Government said there was no ban. Then it issued licences. And now everyone is arguing about what just happened.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has issued fresh petrol import licences to six petroleum marketers NIPCO, AA Rano, Matrix, Shafa, Pinnacle, and Bono authorising the importation of a combined 720,000 metric tons of petrol. NIPCO received clearance for 120,000 metric tons; AA Rano and Matrix 150,000 each; Shafa and Pinnacle 120,000 each; and Bono 60,000. The numbers are not small. And the timing is not accidental.
A top NMDPRA official, defending the decision, was explicit: "There was never an embargo on importation. The position of the authority had always been clear. Energy security for the nation is paramount. The target has always been to do everything to ensure that there are no supply gaps in the system. So, the dual input of domestic refining and other sources would combine to give us the required supply stability." It was a carefully worded statement. But it raised an immediate question if there was never an embargo, why did the NMDPRA spend months insisting no import licences had been issued in 2026?
The agency had previously and repeatedly denied granting any import licences from January 1, 2026 onward insisting that vessels bringing in petrol were operating on licences issued in the final quarter of 2025. Dangote's camp never bought that explanation. A senior official at the refinery said flatly: "I'm sure that you saw my president's statement that at least six companies have been given import licences. I know for sure that import licences are still being granted." The context behind all of this matters. The decision comes as global energy markets have been thrown into turmoil by the escalating US-Iran conflict, which has sent crude oil prices soaring, disrupted international shipping routes, and increased landing costs for any petroleum imported into Nigeria. Since the war began on February 28, the pump price of petrol has surged from ₦839 per litre to ₦1,336 a near doubling in under three months, largely driven by global crude price volatility hitting the Dangote Refinery's foreign exchange costs.
The World Bank weighed in pointedly, arguing in its latest Nigeria Development Update that the suspension of import licences since January had stifled competition, driven prices above import-parity levels, and left consumers paying more than necessary noting that imported petrol is currently about 12 per cent cheaper than fuel from the Dangote Refinery. That last figure landed like a grenade.
The Dangote Refinery's response has been equally pointed. Sources within the facility said the refinery was actively considering exporting all its refined products like petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel rather than continue supplying a domestic market where the government simultaneously undermines local production by issuing import licences to competitors. "If they know there will be fuel scarcity, why are they giving import licences when the whole world is trying to protect their local industries? Trump is fighting for the US, and the rest of the world is resisting him to protect their own industries," a refinery source said.
Energy expert Salako Kareem did not hold back either. He described the decision as a policy reversal that threatens domestic refining gains and warned that opening the door to imports could make Nigeria a dumping ground for low-quality petrol with emergency import measures potentially leading to an influx of fuel that fails required standards. His group, the Energy Transparency and Market Justice Initiative, called on the NMDPRA to publicly disclose the criteria used in issuing the new licences and the safeguards preventing substandard products from entering the market.
On the other side, marketers are welcoming the move with open arms. IPMAN National Publicity Secretary Chinedu Ukadike argued that restricting imports contradicts the spirit of the Petroleum Industry Act, saying: "If the government says it has removed the subsidy and the PIA enables competition, then blocking imports means you are already regulating the market."
Analysis
This is not a complicated story at its core. It just has complicated people telling it. Nigeria has one functioning large scale refinery. It supplies the overwhelming majority of the country's fuel. Its pricing is tied to global crude costs and exchange rates that are currently swinging wildly because two nuclear powers are conducting military operations in the Persian Gulf. Fuel prices have nearly doubled in three months. The government, under pressure from the World Bank, from consumers, and from the broader logic of energy security, has decided to reintroduce competing supply. That, stripped of all the noise, is what happened. But the noise matters. Because the way this was handled the months of denials, the contradiction between official statements and what Dangote was publicly saying, the absence of any transparent criteria for which six marketers received licences does genuine damage to regulatory credibility. If the NMDPRA had simply said, from the beginning, that energy security requires a mixed supply approach and that licences would be issued on merit to qualified marketers, the policy would be defensible. Instead, the agency spent months insisting nothing was happening while it was quietly happening. That's not a communications problem. That's a governance problem. The Dangote export threat deserves to be taken seriously not because it would be rational for the refinery to do so indefinitely, but because the underlying grievance is legitimate. Nigeria built a 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery and then, within months of it becoming operational, resumed issuing licences to bring in competing product from abroad. From where Dangote sits, that looks less like energy security policy and more like the old import lobby reasserting itself under a new justification. Whether that reading is fair or not, it is the reading that a significant number of industry players share. The World Bank's 12 per cent price differential claim is the most politically explosive detail in this story. If imported fuel is genuinely cheaper than domestic fuel and the bank is standing behind that figure then Nigerians are paying a premium to support local refining. That's a subsidy by another name, and in a country that just dismantled a subsidy regime amid enormous economic pain, it is a deeply uncomfortable finding. The government needs to address it directly. Not through a spokesperson. Through a published pricing comparison, a clear regulatory framework, and a transparent licensing process that Nigerians can scrutinise. Six companies have licences. 720,000 metric tons of petrol are coming in. The Dangote Refinery is furious. And at the filling station, the price is still above ₦1,300. For ordinary Nigerians, the policy debate is interesting. What they actually want is for the number on that pump to start going down.
Tags