In what has been described by industry watchers as the first move of its kind in the last 25 years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has raised the number of major oil marketers in the country from seven to 27. The upgrading of 20 new oil firms to major oil marketers’ status is partly informed by the desire to find a lasting solution to the persisting fuel scarcity that has hit large swathes of the country in recent months. This led to long queues at filling stations that have the commodity in major cities as well as arbitrary hike in prices. The black market in the sale of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) has been booming with the attendant rise in transportation and energy costs as well as the spillover effect on food prices.

Consequently, the economic situation has worsened for the majority of citizens with many more people caught deeper in the poverty trap. It was so serious that the Department of State Services (DSS), which apparently suspected sabotage, directed that the fuel scarcity be brought to an end immediately.

Before the new initiative, the only seven major marketers in the country were TotalEnergies, OVH Energy (Oando), MRS, Conoil PLC, Ardova PLC, 11 PLC and NNPC Retail Limited. But will the quantum leap in the number of major oil marketers finally resolve the perennial problem of fuel scarcity? Not a few operators and experts in the industry have expressed doubts that this will be the case. For one, there is the widespread perception that despite the coming on stream of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the new status of the NNPCL as a private company, not much has changed in concrete terms as regards the structure of the industry and the fundamental sources of its multiple inefficiencies remain unaddressed. Despite its change in nomenclature, the oil behemoth is still seen as operating as a monopoly with a strangulating hold on the efficient functioning of the industry.

For instance, some have questioned the criteria for the upgrading of the new major oil marketers and if the entire process was transparent and driven by merit. According to an investigative report byThe Punchnewspaper, industry insiders claim that some of the upgraded companies had been accorded the status of major oil marketers by the NNPCL long before now and enjoyed priority allocations without all their stations still having petroleum products readily available. Again, some argue that one of the criteria for the firms elevated to the new status was that they must have branches across the country in addition to owning depots; but not all met this yardstick.