Nigeria's NNPC says its facing financial strain over costly fuel imports
By Ope Adetayo
ABUJA, Sept 2 (Reuters) -Nigeria's state-oil firm NNPC on Sunday said it is facing financial strain making it unable to import petrol into Africa's most populous nation, that has seen weeks-long fuel scarcity across its retail stations.
The news comes after Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), the country's sole importer of refined products, in August announced record profits for 2023 but warned that it was covering for shortfalls in government's petrol import bill.
Reuters reported early July that the NNPC's debt to oil traders had surpassed $6 billion, doubling since early April, as the company struggled to cover the gap between fixed pump prices and global fuel costs. The NNPC declined to comment at that time.
It later blamed operational hitches for the long fuel queues.
"This financial strain has placed considerable pressure on the company and poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply," NNPC's spokesperson Olufemi Soneye said in a statement late on Sunday.
President Bola Tinubu scrapped a costly but popular subsidy on petrol last year when he took office, to cut government expenditure. But he reintroduced subsidy partly after inflation skyrocketed, worsening a cost of living crisis and stoking tension among the population.
The IMF has said fuel subsidies could cost Nigeria up to 3% of GDP this year as the increases in pump prices have not kept up with their dollar cost.
The West African country expects to likely spend 5.4 trillion naira ($3.7 billion) this year - 50% more than in 2023 - to keep petrol prices fixed, while borrowing to plug gaps in its budget, a draft document had said in June.
"We are actively collaborating with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to maintain a consistent supply of petroleum products nationwide," the NNPC said.
Reporting by Ope Adetayo
Editing by Chijioke Ohuocha and Marguerita Choy
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務,允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容,但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限,並受以下條款與條例約束:(i)條款與條例;(ii)風險提示;(iii)完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊,僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意,我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成,也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料,僅適用於教育/資訊類用途,不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議,或是交易價格紀錄,或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容,包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接,皆爲‘按原狀’,並作爲一般市場評論所提供,而非投資建議。請理解和接受,所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容,並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性,而根據法律要求所編寫,而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊,相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。