Nigeria has stepped in to support Niger Republic by approving the immediate supply of 300 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to ease the country’s fuel crisis.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) responded positively to urgent requests from Nigerien officials, facilitating the fuel delivery.
A senior government official, familiar with the development, disclosed that Nigeria approved the supply as a “strategic bargaining tool” in ongoing negotiations with Niger.
Diplomatic Move
According to the official, the delegation explained that Niger had been reliant on fuel from a Chinese refinery.
However, due to issues with the supplier, the refinery was shut down, leaving the country with limited options.
“We do not want to blow our trumpet. Rather, we want to use it as a bargaining chip for negotiation, as we continue to engage with them to bring them back to ECOWAS,” the official said.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited said the deal could have been done by the Presidency, as the national oil firm now operates as a limited liability Company
Niger fuel crisis
The fuel crisis in Niger reached alarming proportions last week after a litre of petrol sold for N8,000 in some parts of the country.
Due to the removal of subsidy on fuel by Nigeria, the price of petrol varied depending on the distance from Nigeria.
A transborder businessman from Nigeria, Mallam Abubakar Usman, said, “There is serious scarcity of fuel in the country. It depends on where one is getting the fuel.
“In Konni, the border town between Nigeria and Niger, you can get a litre at 1,200 CFA, which is about N2,500. If you go to Agadez, the same litre of fuel is 3,000 CFA, equivalent to N7,500 per litre. In Arilit, a local government under Agadez, which is the border town between Niger and Algeria, it is 3,500 CFA, which is about N8,750 when converted to our currency.”
Usman attributed the scarcity to the deteriorating relationship between Nigeria and Niger.
An official of the Nigerian Immigration Service, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that some trucks carrying petrol were sighted passing through the border.
Niger-China oil firm clash
The fuel crisis in Niger may have been self-inflicted after a confrontation between the ruling junta and Chinese oil companies which had long dominated the country’s petroleum sector.
A security analyst, Zagazola Makama, in an article he published on X, revealed that trouble began in March 2024 when the China National Petroleum Corporation granted the Nigerien government a $400m advance, using future crude oil deliveries as collateral.
The deal was to help Niger cope with crippling economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS following the July 2023 coup in the country.
However, when it was time to repay the debt, the junta was cash strapped.
Instead of negotiating, the military rulers were said to have decided to strong-arm China, slapping an $80bn tax demand on Soraz (Zinder Refinery Company) despite the state-owned Sonidep already owing Soraz a staggering $250bn.
According to Makama, when China refused to provide additional loans, the junta retaliated by expelling Chinese oil executives from the country and seizing Soraz’s bank accounts.
The decision was said to have backfired and led to the collapse of Niger’s petroleum sector, which is heavily reliant on Chinese expertise and investment.
The Soraz refinery, the lifeline of Niger’s fuel supply, ground to a halt, and fuel shortages spread like wildfire.
But the Commercial Director of the state-owned Nigerien Company for Oil Products (Sonidep), Maazou Aboubacar, told AFP that the Soraz refinery in Zinder could no longer satisfy domestic demand.
According to him, the reason is principally down to the drying up of the flourishing black market supplied from Nigeria.
The country’s refinery only provides Sonidep with 25 tanker trucks of petrol a day, when the daily national requirement is up to twice that.
Domestic consumption was said to have been boosted by a cut in fuel prices introduced by the military regime that seized power in Niger in 2023.
Data from the Global Petrol Prices platform shows that the average global fuel price is currently $1.26 per litre (N1,957).
Nigeria’s fuel prices remains one of the cheapest in Africa thanks to the Dangote petroleum refinery.
Here are 10 African countries with the cheapest fuel prices:
Libya – N47 ($0.031)
Angola – N504 ($0.328)
Egypt – N517 ($0.336)
Algeria – N529 ($0.344)
Sudan – N1,078 ($0.700)
Nigeria – N847 ($0.551)
Ethiopia – N1,208 ($0.785)
Tunisia – N1,260 ($0.818)
Liberia – N1,347 ($0.875)
Ghana – N1,564 ($1.017)
DR Congo – N1,601 ($1.040)
Botswana – N1,663 ($1.079)
Write Up/Punch
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