Six Nigerian oil marketers have been granted the licence to import petrol into the country to liberalise the local market and encourage competition.
The licences were issued by the Nigerian Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), allowing them to import a total of about 600,000 metric tons or roughly a quarter of the country’s domestic consumption. The firms are Matrix, AA Rano, AYM Shafa, Nipco and Bono.
They will import between 60,000 and 150,000 metric tonnes of petrol, subject to the permit type.
This development is a shift in policy that has seen the NMDPRA heavily regulate foreign arrivals of Nigeria’s main motor fuel in order to support the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery in Lagos.
After an initial clampdown in October 2025, the NMDPRA issued six companies with limited petrol import licenses in late March 2025, but left them to expire at the end of the first quarter, leaving uncertainty over its future policy trajectory.
In its latest permitting round, the authority has continued to restrict the number of companies authorised to import foreign petrol, but has substantially increased permit volumes to cover more than triple the previously approved volume.
Such entities will typically buy products from the nearby offshore Lome market, where larger international trading houses and oil companies will send the fuel and load it onto smaller ships.
This comes as ex-Dangote Cement official, Mr Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, was selected to replace Mr Saidu Mohammed after just four months in office by President Bola Tinubu. His appointment had raised worries about possible unfair practices.
According to the latest NMDPRA figures, the Dangote refinery ran at 94 per cent of its capacity in March and produced enough fuel to cover the country’s entire domestic gasoline consumption. However, supplies to the local market fell.
S&P Global Commodities at Sea data shows Nigeria imported 60,000 barrels per day, equivalent to 218,000 metric tonnes of petrol in April, more than double March’s all-time low but still less than half of the 2026 average.
