The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Friday, revealed that the amount spent as subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, had crossed N400bn monthly.

NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, disclosed this at the Headquarters of the oil firm at the ongoing Final Cutover to NNPC limited, from being a corporation.

Kyari explained that the oil company was spending about N202 as subsidy on every litre of petrol consumed across the country, stressing that about 65 million litres of PMS was pumped daily into the market by NNPCL.

Although he said the oil company would continue to meet its obligations by providing PMS for Nigeria, Kyari pointed out that the over N400 billion monthly subsidy had been a severe strain on NNPCL’s cash flow.

NNPCL is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria and has continued to play this role for several years running, bearing the huge cost of fuel subsidy.

Other private oil marketers stopped importing petrol into Nigeria due to the difficulty encountered in accessing the United States dollars, required for the imports of PMS.