Explainer: Crude Oil Is Around $100, So Why Are Nigerians Paying Almost ₦1,500 for Petrol?
In 2012, Brent crude averaged about $111.67 per barrel, yet Nigerians were buying petrol for ₦97 per litre.
Today, crude oil is again around $100 per barrel, but petrol is selling for about ₦1,400–₦1,500 per litre in parts of Nigeria. Recent increases followed Dangote Refinery’s decision to raise its gantry price to ₦1,350 per litre.
So Nigerians are asking a simple question:
Why are we suffering this much in an oil-producing country?
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Remember 2012
On January 1, 2012, the Goodluck Jonathan administration removed the petrol subsidy and raised the pump price from ₦65 to ₦141 per litre.
Nigerians protested.
The NLC, TUC, civil-society groups and the Occupy Nigeria movement organised nationwide demonstrations and a general strike.
Prominent opposition figures, including Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari, also criticised the policy.
The pressure eventually forced the Jonathan administration to reduce the price to ₦97 per litre on January 16, 2012.
That history matters because it shows that fuel pricing has never been merely about economics. It is also about how much hardship citizens can bear.
But look at other oil-producing countries
Nigeria is not the only OPEC country with citizens who need affordable energy.
Algeria: petrol is around ₦480–₦490 per litre at current exchange rates. The country maintains substantial fuel subsidies.
Kuwait: regular petrol is about 0.105 Kuwaiti dinar per litre, roughly ₦470 at current exchange rates. Fuel prices are regulated and subsidised.
Saudi Arabia: regular 91-octane petrol is 2.18 riyals per litre, roughly ₦790 at current exchange rates. Saudi Arabia also maintains regulated domestic fuel pricing and social support mechanisms.
These countries have different populations, economies and government revenues, so their systems cannot simply be copied in Nigeria.
But they demonstrate one important point:
An oil-producing country can choose to cushion its citizens from the full impact of international energy prices.
The question, therefore, is not necessarily whether Nigeria must return to the old subsidy regime.
The question is:
What protection is available to the Nigerian citizen?
Because Nigerians don’t live inside a macroeconomic report
For the average Nigerian, the calculation is painfully simple.
Petrol goes up → transport goes up.
Transport goes up → food becomes more expensive.
Fuel goes up → generators cost more to run.
Operating costs rise → small businesses increase prices or struggle to survive.
And when all these happen together, the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians falls.
That is the real meaning of ₦1,500 petrol.
Nigeria has crude. Nigerians need protection.
Nigeria produces crude oil.
Nigeria now has a 700,000-barrel-per-day Dangote refinery operating at scale.
Nigeria earns billions of dollars from petroleum.
Yet millions of Nigerians are struggling with food, transportation, electricity and basic household expenses.
Government can argue that the old subsidy system was costly and prone to abuse. That is a legitimate part of the economic debate.
But Nigerians can equally ask:
If subsidy is gone, what replaces the protection it once provided?
Why can’t government use part of increased oil revenues to provide targeted relief for poor households and transport users?
Why can’t domestic crude supply and local refining be structured to deliver greater price stability?
Why should every international oil-price shock be passed so quickly to consumers?
And above all:
Why should citizens of an oil-producing country be among those carrying such a heavy energy burden?
The issue is no longer just the price of petrol.
It is about the price ordinary Nigerians are paying to survive.
A government may have economic reasons for changing fuel policy. But economic policy must ultimately be judged by what it does to people’s lives.
Nigeria has oil. Nigerians deserve to feel some protection from that wealth.
That is the question Headlineswave believes should remain at the centre of the fuel-price debate.
