Petrol pump price remains at N165, says NMDPRA.
This online newspaper gathered that this is coming, despite the position of some oil marketers that the current pump price for petrol in the country was unsustainable following long queues that have surfaced in some cities across the country.
Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday assured Nigerians that it has over two billion litres of PMS that would last for the next 34 days in the country, adding that there was enough stock to meet the nation’s demand.
However, oil marketers under the aegis of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) have empathised with their customers and the members of the public on the current distribution hiccups witnessed in the supply of petrol from the various petrol stations dispensing at N165 per litre, saying the price was unsustainable.
But the House of Representatives has summoned stakeholders in the Nigerian downstream oil and gas sector to appear before it today over the resurgence of petrol scarcity and queues in some parts of the country as well as the soaring prices of diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The statement by the NMDPRA that insisted on N165 per litre for pump price, came on the heels of the recent agitation by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) that PMS sold at N165 was no longer sustainable.
The Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, NMDPRA, Mr. Ogbugo Kalu, who spoke at a media briefing said the Authority was ever ready to enforce the price on independent marketers who are planning to increase pump price to N180 per litre.
“PMS is a regulated product. The price is fixed and the ex-depot price is known. The pump price remains at N165. So we continue to urge Nigerians to keep within these operating rules,” he explained.
According to him, in the next three days, the Authority would focus its energy in making sure that the marine stock would be translated into inland stock to get petroleum products across the country.
He added: “Within a very short while, we will see the fuel queues pale out. So that is what our focus in the Authority and for the next few days we urge every operator and indeed even assure the public that whatever glitches and supply gaps that have been observed will disappear shortly.
“So we do not encourage any panic buying. We urge Nigerians to be calm as these things will be resolved very easily.”
Meanwhile, the Group Executive Director, NNPC, Adeyemi Adetunji, said over two billion litres of PMS that would last for the next 34 days was in country, adding that there was enough stock to meet the nation’s demand. He assured that NNPC was working with the entire operators and stakeholders in the downstream sector to ensure that petroleum products get to distribution channels and filling stations across the country.
“With all the apparatuses put in place, we can assure that all the fuel queues will disappear in the next few days. Nigerians will continue to enjoy the free flow of petroleum products,” he added.
The Managing Director, Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC), Isiaku Abdullahi, said all hands were on the deck to support its marketers and transporters to ensure that petroleum products get to where they are needed.
He said there were about three vessels in the Apapa jetty waiting to offload more than 60 million metric tonnes, adding that in due course, the potential and imagined fuel crisis in Lagos would be over.
