FG Keeps Mum Over N179/litre Fuel Price Controversy

The Federal Government has refused to speak on the costs of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, in various regions of the country.

Naija News reports there was confusion in the downstream sector on Tuesday as operators unilaterally increased petrol price from N165 to N179 per litre.

In any case, most of the independent marketers were selling between N170 and N200 per litre in complete disobedience to the government directives.

However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, in a statement on Tuesday denied issuing the directive on Nigeria’s new petrol price.

Following the development, a document displaying the costs of petrol has surfaced and has created confusion among consumers.

The document, entitled, “PMS Pump Price Adjustment,” described the government-approved N165/litre price of petrol as the “old price,” as it went further to outline the new rates for the commodity in different regions of Nigeria.

For the South-West, North-West, North-East and South-South, it outlined the new PMS pump prices per litre in these regions to be N179, N184, N189 and N179 respectively.

The new prices of the commodity per litre in the North-Central, South-East, Abuja and Lagos were put at N179, N184, N174 and N169 respectively.

In the section captured as “PMS Ex-depot Price Adjustment”, the document stated that while the old ex-depot price was N148.17/litre, the new rates in Lagos, Warri/Ogharra and Port Harcourt were now N160-N162/litre, N162-N165/litre and N165-N167/litre respectively.

In a chat with The Punch, the Spokesman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ukadike Chinedu, said the Federal Government might be using the document to test the reaction of the public as touching an official hike in petrol price.

He, however, added that there was no official confirmation yet of the document.

Ukadike said, “So that is the issue and it is also because of the cost of diesel and the unavailability of petroleum products. If there is availability or the refineries are working, all these issues will be taken care of.

“Therefore it is not just that the document on different prices came from NMDPRA, it did not come from them, but it is the reality in disguise, maybe the government is using it to test grounds, to know how the public will react.”

As of the time of filing this report, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, responsible for fuel pricing has not reacted to the development.