House Targets Dollar Fees, Licence Lopsidedness In Fuel Market
Concerns over how petroleum products refined within Nigeria are priced have pushed the House of Representatives to challenge the continued imposition of United States dollar charges on locally produced fuel, even as lawmakers opened a fresh inquiry into how fuel import licences were shared in 2026.
The House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) raised the issues on Tuesday at the National Assembly in Abuja during an interactive session with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria. The engagement forms part of consultations on proposed amendments to the Petroleum Industry Act and wider reforms meant to strengthen domestic refining and secure stable supply.
Committee Chairman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato Federal Constituency of Imo State, said the panel would summon the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Central Bank of Nigeria and refiners to respond to operators’ complaints. “It is not good for the economy that, at a time like this, people involved in domestic downstream activities are still being charged in dollars. That ultimately affects the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit,” he said.
He also pledged to probe claims that import allocations for the first, second and third quarters of 2026 went to the same set of marketers. “We will raise these questions when the NMDPRA appears before the committee to explain the criteria used in issuing those licences,” Ugochinyere said, while stressing the need to protect both domestic refiners and marketers who built storage and distribution assets over decades.
The complaints land at a delicate moment for the sector. The 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery, which has reshaped local supply, moved on July 13, 2026 to price petrol, diesel and aviation fuel in dollars, fixing petrol at 0.779 dollars per litre and invalidating earlier naira invoices. The switch reversed the naira for crude arrangement that began on October 1, 2024, and marketers must now source foreign exchange at the refinery gate. Days earlier, on July 2, the refinery had cut its ex depot petrol price to 1,075 naira per litre, its fourth reduction in a month and a cumulative drop of more than 200 naira since May 30.
Presenting DAPPMAN’s position, its Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, said the operating climate had crippled much of the depot network. “From the records of the NMDPRA, not fewer than 72 of the 154 depots nationwide had no regular or consistent trading activity in the last one year,” he said, warning against “an almost total monopoly in the supply of PMS by the mega refinery.” He said domestic transactions were still billed partly in dollars “despite a presidential directive suspending foreign currency denominated billing for local operations,” and urged that the import option remain available as a regulated fallback to prevent fuel queues.
IPMAN National President, Abubakar Shettima, pointed to financing as a central burden. “Today, marketers borrow from commercial banks at interest rates of up to 32 per cent. Those costs are eventually passed on to consumers,” he said, proposing a dedicated Petroleum Bank offering single digit loans similar to schemes in agriculture and industry. He also called on multinational oil firms to invest in local refining and suggested that independent marketers be allowed to help operate the country’s state owned refineries, citing their earlier investment in what became NIPCO.
The session comes amid full deregulation of petrol pricing, with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, maintaining that market forces, not government fiat, now determine fuel costs. Lawmakers are expected to engage regulators, NNPC Limited and other stakeholders before proposing measures to build a more transparent and competitive downstream market.