The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to continue granting and renewing petroleum products import licences for Matrix Energy, A.A. Rano and AYM Shafa.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who delivered judgment on Monday, held that the NMDPRA’s refusal to issue or renew the licences for the three companies amounted to “direct non-compliance” with the Petroleum Industry Act.
Ekwo said the regulator was acting beyond the provisions of the law, warning that any exercise concerning import licences carried out in violation of the PIA and other relevant laws would be “null and void”.
The suit was filed by Matrix Energy, A.A. Rano and AYM Shafa through their lawyers, Raji Ahmed, SAN, and Chris Ekemezie.
The companies had asked the court to declare that the PIA does not prohibit petroleum products imports or prevent the NMDPRA from granting or renewing import licences to eligible operators.
In his judgment, Ekwo held that the plaintiffs had successfully established their case and that the suit succeeded on its merits.
The judge said sections 31(a), (d), (l), 32(l), (s), (c), (u), (aa), (ii), (jj), and 211 of the PIA, read together with Section 72 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, require the NMDPRA to promote competition in the midstream and downstream petroleum sector.
He added that the provisions also require the regulator to prevent abuse of dominant market positions and restrictive business practices.
Ekwo consequently ordered the NMDPRA to continue to grant, issue, extend, renew or reissue licences, permits and authorisations for midstream and downstream operations, particularly petroleum products imports, to the three companies, provided they meet all statutory and regulatory requirements.
In an affidavit filed in the case, Sabiu Mahuta, executive director of A.A. Rano Nigeria Limited, said the NMDPRA had, since July 2025, only sporadically granted, extended, renewed or reissued petroleum products import licences to the plaintiffs.
Mahuta alleged that the regulator’s actions and inaction were entrenching market dominance and monopolisation of the downstream sector by local refineries.
He said the three companies had collectively invested more than $20bn in infrastructure, logistics and retail networks for their petroleum products businesses.
Raji also urged the court to hold that allowing petroleum products imports alongside local production would promote competition, check monopoly and price-fixing, and improve the midstream and downstream petroleum sector.
The NMDPRA’s legal team filed its own processes in the case.
The ruling comes amid a wider dispute over petrol import licences, particularly between the NMDPRA and Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
On March 25, the regulator eased petrol import restrictions by granting a new batch of licences to local marketers, following supply disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis.
In May, Dangote Petroleum Refinery filed a fresh suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to overturn petrol import licences issued or renewed by the NMDPRA for marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
Dangote argued that the licences breached an earlier order to maintain the status quo and undermined its operations. Regulators and marketers have maintained that imports are needed to ensure adequate supply and prevent shortages.
The refinery had withdrawn an earlier suit challenging similar import permits in July 2025.
Despite the legal challenge, the NMDPRA issued another batch of petrol import licences on September 23 for the fourth quarter of 2026.
The regulator approved 830,000 tonnes of petrol imports for the quarter, with Matrix Energy, A.A. Rano, AYM Shafa, NIPCO, Pinnacle Oil and Bono Energy receiving the licences.
The allocations matched the volumes approved for the six companies in June for the third quarter.
The latest court ruling also comes as NMDPRA data showed that Nigeria’s average daily petrol imports fell by 26 per cent to 14.6 million litres in August, from 19.7 million litres in July.
Domestic petrol receipts rose by 39 per cent to 35.9 million litres per day during the same period, while total petrol receipts increased by 11 per cent to 50.5 million litres daily.
Petrol consumption fell by 14 per cent to 41.5 million litres per day in August, from 48.5 million litres in July.
The regulator said petrol stock sufficiency improved marginally to 22.9 days in August, compared with 22.4 days in July, while diesel stock sufficiency increased by 11 per cent to 51.6 days.
Dangote refinery produced an average of 41.94 million litres of petrol daily in August, supplying 35.87 million litres to the domestic market and exporting 9.73 million litres.
The refinery ended the month with 360.4 million litres of petrol in stock, while its average capacity utilisation stood at 105.21 per cent.
It also produced an average of 18.01 million litres of diesel daily, supplying 12.37 million litres domestically and exporting 8.75 million litres.
Between January and August, domestic refineries received 137.98 million barrels of crude feedstock, comprising 109.88 million barrels of domestic crude and 28.10 million barrels of imported seaborne crude.
Domestic crude accounted for 79.64 per cent of refinery feedstock, while imported crude made up 20.36 per cent.
Crude receipts by domestic refineries also rose by 17 per cent to 683,000 barrels per day in August, from 585,000 barrels per day in July.
Among the modular refineries, Edo recorded an average capacity utilisation of 90.43 per cent in August, followed by WalterSmith at 64.77 per cent, Aradel at 58.77 per cent and OPAC at 16.97 per cent.
WalterSmith produced an average of 280,000 litres of diesel daily, while Aradel produced 310,000 litres and OPAC 110,000 litres.
Edo refinery produced an average of 80,000 litres of diesel daily, while Dupport refinery remained shut during the month.
The modular refineries collectively produced 790,000 litres of diesel per day in August.
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