The Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to continue granting and renewing petroleum products import licences for Matrix Energy, AA Rano and AYM Shafa, subject to the companies meeting all applicable statutory and regulatory conditions.
Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the order on Monday while ruling on a suit filed by the three oil marketers over the regulator’s refusal to regularly issue or renew their import licences.
The court found that the NMDPRA’s position was inconsistent with provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, and held that eligible importers cannot be denied licences where they have satisfied the conditions prescribed by the regulator.
The ruling comes as the place of imported petrol in Nigeria’s changing downstream market remains under legal and commercial scrutiny. The NMDPRA recently approved 830,000 metric tonnes of PMS imports for six marketers for the fourth quarter of 2026, including Matrix Energy, AA Rano and AYM Shafa.
Justice Ekwo held that the PIA does not prohibit petroleum product imports or prevent the NMDPRA from licensing qualified companies to bring products into the country.
The three marketers had asked the court to declare that the PIA does not outlaw or prohibit petroleum product imports and does not bar the regulator from granting or renewing licences for eligible importers.
The court subsequently directed the NMDPRA to grant, issue, extend, renew or reissue the relevant licences, permits and authorisations for midstream and downstream operations, particularly those covering petroleum product imports, once the plaintiffs satisfy the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.
Justice Ekwo also affirmed that the NMDPRA has the statutory authority to grant, modify, extend, renew, suspend, cancel, reissue or terminate licences, permits and authorisations covering midstream and downstream petroleum operations.
However, the exercise of those powers, the court held, must remain within the requirements of the law. Any regulatory action concerning import licences that is inconsistent with the relevant provisions of the PIA was declared null and void.
The judge cited provisions including Sections 31, 32 and 211 of the PIA, alongside Section 72 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), which require the regulator to promote competition and guard against abuse of dominant positions and restrictive business practices in the petroleum sector.
The case arose from the marketers’ claim that the NMDPRA had not been issuing or renewing their import approvals on a regular basis.
In an affidavit filed before the court, Sabiu Saidu Mahuta, Executive Director of A.A. Rano Nigeria Limited, said the regulator had, since July 2025, granted or renewed the companies’ petroleum import licences and related authorisations only sporadically.
Mahuta argued that the regulator’s approach was contributing to market dominance and the concentration of downstream activities around local refineries.
The three companies told the court that they had collectively invested more than $20 billion in infrastructure, logistics and retail networks for their petroleum businesses.
Their counsel, Ahmed Raji, SAN, argued that allowing imported products to compete with locally refined petroleum would encourage competition, check monopoly and price-fixing, and contribute to improvements across the midstream and downstream sector.
The NMDPRA also filed its legal processes in response to the suit.
The judgment comes shortly after the regulator approved a fresh batch of petrol import permits.
On September 18, the NMDPRA approved 830,000 metric tonnes of PMS imports for the fourth quarter of 2026. The six beneficiaries were Matrix Energy, AA Rano, AYM Shafa, NIPCO, Pinnacle Oil and Bono Energy.
The latest approvals come against the backdrop of a separate ₦100 billion suit filed by Dangote Petroleum Refinery against the Attorney General of the Federation over petroleum import licences.
Matrix Energy, AA Rano and AYM Shafa had earlier applied to join the suit, with the three marketers seeking to participate in the proceedings over the import-licensing dispute.
Dangote Refinery has argued in the case that continued issuance of petroleum import licences contravenes Nigerian law, maintaining that imports should be permitted where domestic production is insufficient to meet demand. The case remains pending.
The refinery had also brought a similar case in 2025 against the issuance of import licences to NNPC Ltd, AYM Shafa Ltd, AA Rano Ltd, T. Time Petroleum Ltd, 2015 Petroleum Ltd and Matrix Petroleum Services Ltd.
Dangote later discontinued that suit in July 2025.
The latest judgment also comes as domestic refining has taken a larger share of Nigeria’s petrol supply, reducing the country’s reliance on imports.
NMDPRA data analysed earlier in 2026 showed that local refineries supplied 3.18 billion litres of PMS in the first quarter, while petrol imports fell to 965.52 million litres. Domestic refineries therefore accounted for about 76.7 percent of total PMS supply during the period.
Local refinery supply rose from 1.996 billion litres in Q1 2025 to 3.179 billion litres in Q1 2026, representing a 59.2 percent increase.
Over the same period, petrol imports dropped from an estimated 2.43 billion litres to 965.52 million litres, a 60.2 percent decline. Total PMS supply also fell from 4.42 billion litres to 4.14 billion litres.
The NMDPRA’s quarterly breakdown did not directly identify Dangote Refinery as the source of the majority of domestic supply. However, industry records show that it was the only refinery publicly known to be producing PMS commercially at that scale during the period.
Nigeria had historically depended heavily on imported petrol because of the prolonged underperformance of its state-owned refineries. The emergence and ramp-up of Dangote Refinery has since changed that supply structure, with domestic production accounting for a substantially larger share of the market.
The latest court order places the legal entitlement of eligible marketers to seek petroleum import licences alongside this changing supply structure, with the court making the issuance and renewal of such licences subject to compliance with the relevant statutory and regulatory requirements.