{"id":82473,"date":"2026-02-05T05:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82473"},"modified":"2026-02-05T05:54:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:54:05","slug":"nmdpra-targets-end-to-fuel-imports-as-downstream-reforms-deepen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/02\/05\/nmdpra-targets-end-to-fuel-imports-as-downstream-reforms-deepen\/","title":{"rendered":"NMDPRA Targets End to Fuel Imports as Downstream Reforms Deepen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigeria is moving towards ending its dependence on imported petroleum products, with a plan to transition from full importation to zero imports and eventually become a net exporter, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has said.<\/p>\n<p>The Authority\u2019s Chief Executive, Saidu Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the 2026 Nigerian International Energy Summit.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed said Nigeria saved more than \u20a66 trillion in fiscal and foreign exchange losses in the first nine months of 2025 through downstream reforms aimed at reducing reliance on imported fuel and boosting domestic refining.<\/p>\n<p>He attributed the savings to full deregulation of the downstream sector, foreign exchange harmonisation, expanded gas utilisation, and naira-based crude oil and petroleum product transactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cumulative impact of these reforms has reduced the fiscal and economic losses of importing petroleum products by over \u20a66 trillion in the first nine months of 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed, speaking publicly for the first time since his appointment in December 2025, said the Petroleum Industry Act had transformed the sector into a liberalised market, easing fuel scarcity and supply distortions while promoting market-based pricing.<\/p>\n<p>He said Nigeria was now meeting a significant portion of its domestic fuel demand locally, adding that refinery revival remained central to the strategy.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, government-owned refineries were returning to operation, while more licences had been issued to private investors.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed also said the country was expanding gas-based alternatives to strengthen its push to become a continental energy hub.<\/p>\n<p>He assured investors of a transparent regulatory environment and called for stronger collaboration to sustain reforms and reposition Nigeria as Africa\u2019s leading energy hub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata Nigeria is moving towards ending its dependence on imported petroleum products, with a plan to transition from full importation to zero imports and eventually become a net exporter, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has said. The Authority\u2019s Chief Executive, Saidu Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":82475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1756,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82474,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82473\/revisions\/82474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}