There is no plan to hike pump price, the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) said on Tuesday.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie
Obateru, dismissed rumours about an imminent upward review of petrol
price.
He told The Nation: “NNPC has not increased its ex-depot price. I am
certain that NNPC is not likely to increase its ex-depot price in
February.”
According to him, NNPC has a stock of petrol that can last for over 40
days. He allayed fears about scarcity of the product.
Obateru urged the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to clamp
down on the marketers hoarding petrol.
“We have sufficiency for almost 40 days. If people are hoarding or
increasing their prices, it is for the DPR to look into it,” he said.
Read Also: Labour to govt: It will be insensitive to hike fuel price
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN)
urged the Federal Government to return subsidy to Premium Motor Spirit
(PMS) as landing cost has soared to N180 per litre.
IPMAN’s National Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Maiganidi, told The
Nation the government should either deregulate the product fully or
subsidise it.
Maigandi was reacting to the latest fuel scarcity in Lagos.
Asked whether there was an upward review of the pump price, he said:
“Most of the private depots are selling petrol for between N160 and
N164 per litre instead of N148 per litre.”
The Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN) denied that there was an
increment in the pump price of petrol.
It wondered whether any fuel marketer was getting supply from any
source other than the NNPC
MOMAN Chairman, Tunji Oyebanji, said none of his members has hiked
fuel price, adding that all marketers currently source products from
the NNPC.
He said since the Federal Government claimed it has deregulated the
downstream oil sector, marketers were at liberty to sell at any price
reflecting their operational cost.
He said if the unilateral fuel price hike had come from some of his
members, the government would have wielded the big stick.
Oyebanji said the Federal Government desired to deregulate the
downstream oil sector, adding that if that had taken place, the price
would have gone up astronomically.
He said the government was in consultation with Labour to avoid a
steep rise in petroleum products prices.
Consumers resorted to panic buying of petrol products across some
states, resulting in fuel queues along some routes in the Lagos
metropolis.
Many fuel stations adjusted their fuel pump prices from N162.50k to
N165 per litre, while others went as high as N170.00 per litre.
In Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, the queues that returned to
petrol stations at the weekend subsided yesterday.
At the First Blessing filling station along Satellite Campus Road,
Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, petrol was sold at N175 per litre,
while at NNPC retail outlet along the popular Bank Road in the city,
it was sold at N65 per litre.
In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the product was still being
sold at between N162 to N162.50 per litre, which is still within the
N160 and N165 band set by the government when crude traded just above
$43 per barrel four months ago.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March traded above $60 yesterday,
while the Brent April contract on the Intercontinental Exchange
settled at $63. Both crude benchmarks added over 12 per cent in value
since the beginning of February.
Maigandi said the existence of different prices was an indication of a
shortfall, which the marketers are asking the government to subsidise.
“The Federal Government should bring back the subsidy or deregulate
the petrol market completely since the landing cost is N180/litre”.
Asked why the marketers are not patronising the NNPC depots where the
price is still official, he said: “You cannot get the product from
NNPC depots. NNPC depots will ask you to queue up at the depot.”
