Operators within the downstream oil and gas sector have said the federal government has raked in N400 billion due to fuel subsidy removal in the last 30 days.

On Friday, Chinedu Okonkwo, National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Post.

Recall that in a meeting with oil and gas operators in February, Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, stated that the country spends N400 billion monthly on fuel subsidies.

Speaking on the state of the sector owing to the removal of the subsidy and changes in the country’s foreign exchange market, Okonkwo said that the deregulation has a long-term impact.

According to him, the development would either lead to an increase in fuel prices or a decrease, depending on the market-determined price of forex.

He added that the impact on the masses would gradually decrease by introducing Compressed Natural Gas, or CNG, into the sector.

“You know how much the government is spending monthly on fuel subsidy payments, but that expenditure to the tune of dollars or Naira will be saved.

“The government has indeed reduced spending on fuel subsidies, though the thing is biting, so we have drafted an alternative in Compressed Natural Gas, or CNG,” he said.