Despite Bilateral Hostility, Niger Republic Begs Nigeria for Fuel Niger Republic has turned to Nigeria for help after being hit by fuel shortage.
The West African country reached out to Nigeria despite months of diplomatic tensions and hostile rhetoric.
It was learnt that a delegation of senior officials of the military junta travelled down to Abuja to meet Federal Government representatives.
At the end of the deliberation, 300 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit were reportedly agreed for delivery to the country.
A senior government official aware of the development reported Nigeria agreed the deal with the hope of utilising it as a “strategic bargaining tool” in ongoing negotiations with Niger.
According to the official, the delegation clarified that Niger had been reliant on fuel from a Chinese refinery.
However, due to issues with the supplier, the refinery was shut down, leaving the country with limited options.
Our correspondents gathered that Niger turned to Nigeria after the fuel shortage problem became modal. However, the details of the arrangement are stated to be secret.
“We do not require to blow our trumpet. Rather, we require to utilise it as a bargaining chip for negotiation, as we remain to engage with them to bring them back to ECOWAS.
“Let them get more from us. I am confident that in a line they will come back to ECOWAS because they do not have enough resources to import food to sustain their citizens,” the source added.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited revealed the deal could have been done by the Presidency, as the national oil firm now operates as a limited liability company.
Similarly, a source at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery shortened comments due to diplomatic concerns.
The Presidency likewise subsided comments on the matter.
Niger fuel crisis
Revelations show that the fuel confrontation in Niger reached alarming proportions most recent week after a litre of petrol sold for N8,000 in a few parts of the country.
Findings by our correspondents in Sokoto State, which shares a border with Niger, showed that the price of petrol changed depending on the distance from Nigeria.
A transborder businessman from Nigeria, Mallam Abubakar Usman, stated, “There is serious scarcity of fuel in the country. It depends on where one is getting the fuel.
“In Konni, the border town between Nigeria and Niger, you can get a litre at 1,200 CFA, which is about N2,500. If you go to Agadez, the same litre of fuel is 3,000 CFA, indistinguishable to N7,500 per litre. In Arilit, a local government under Agadez, which is the border town between Niger and Algeria, it is 3,500 CFA, which is about N8,750 when converted to our currency.”
Usman attributed the scarcity to the deteriorating comparison between Nigeria and Niger.
An official of the Nigerian Immigration Service, who spoke on mould of anonymity, affirmed that a few trucks carrying petrol were sighted passing through the border.
Niger-China oil firm clash
The fuel violence in Niger may have been self-inflicted after an assault between the ruling junta and Chinese oil companies which had long reigned the country’s petroleum sector.
A security analyst, Zagazola Makama, in an article he published on X, said that tumult commenced in March 2024 when the China National Petroleum Corporation granted the Nigerien government a $400m advance, utilising future crude oil deliveries as collateral.
The deal was to help Niger cope with crippling economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS following the July 2023 coup in the country.
However, when it was time to repay the debt, the junta was cash strapped.
Instead of bargaining, the military rulers were stated to have decided to strong-arm China, slapping a $80bn tax demand on Soraz (Zinder Refinery Company) despite the state-owned Sonidep already owing Soraz a staggering $250bn.
According to Makama, when China refused to provide additive loans, the junta retaliated by expelling Chinese oil executives from the country and seizing Soraz’s bank accounts.
The decision was revealed to have backfired and led to the collapse of Niger’s petroleum sector, which is heavily reliant on Chinese expertise and investment.
The Soraz refinery, the lifeline of Niger’s fuel supply, ground to a halt, and fuel shortages disseminate like wildfire.
But the Commercial Director of the state-owned Nigerien Company for Oil Products (Sonidep), Maazou Aboubacar, informed AFP that the Soraz refinery in Zinder could no longer satisfy domestic demand.
According to him, the reason is particularly down to the drying up of the flourishing black market supplied from Nigeria.
The country’s refinery only provides Sonidep with 25 tanker trucks of petrol a day, when the daily national requirement is up to twice that.
Domestic consumption was disclosed to have been boosted by a crack in fuel prices introduced by the military regime that seized power in Niger in 2023.
Nigeria the good neighbour
This also trended:
Niger Republic’s Head of State, Brig. Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, had implicated Nigeria of colluding with France to destabilise his country through the terror group, Lakurawa.
Speaking in Hausa in December 2024, Tchiani purported that there were plans to establish a terrorist training camp in Gaba Forest, near Sokoto, as portion of a supposed accordance between France and the Islamic State West Africa Province.
He further suggested that Nigerian authorities were aware of these developments.
The Federal Government rejected the allegations.
In February 2025, Niger reportedly stopped a few Nigerians from entering into its cities because they carried ECOWAS passports.
Makama, the counter- insurgency expert, reported despite the falsified accusations and diplomatic snubs, Nigeria stepped in to help Niger with fuel which had been crossing into the country to quench the crisis.
While sharing videos of a few of the fuel trucks going into Niger, he revealed the junta endured too proud to admit its dependency.
“While fuel shipments from Nigeria have already commenced palliating the clash, Niger’s state media has deliberately avoided announcing where the fuel is coming from. Instead, the government has attempted to portray the fuel availability as a result of its own internal measures, a claim that many Nigeriens are commencement to question,” he reported.
Nigeria supplied 13.5 million litres of petrol
Reacting, oil marketers stated albeit they were not aware of the deal, the export of 300 tankers to Niger Republic would quantum to about 13.5 million litres of petrol.
It was calculated that 300 of 45,000-litre capacity trucks is about 13.5 million litres of petrol to be exported to Niger Republic.
The dealers, however, said that Nigeria had enough to save the junta-led country from the current fuel upheaval rocking it.
According to marketers, Nigeria may have passed the days of fuel scarcity as it now has the Dangote refinery, the Port Harcourt refinery, and others producing fuel locally even as importers bring more from other countries.
The National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, revealed he was aware of the fuel assault in Niger Republic, adding that Nigeria had enough to bail out the country.
“I will not declare we don’t have that capacity with the refineries we have in the country. I think we have enough to supply Niger Republic,” the IPMAN Vice President revealed.
Similarly, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, concurred that the country had enough PMS to help its neighbours without racing into more or less crisis.
“If we have a diplomatic reason for that, it is doable,” Gillis-Harry asserted.
Category: World-News
Tag: Despite Bilateral Hostility Niger Republic Begs Nigeria for Fuel
Written by Author
Published 3/16/2025