The Federal Government has announced that it is no longer going to be releasing guiding price bands for the sale of petrol at fueling stations.
It disclosed this in Abuja through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, adding that based on this, the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector had been fully deregulated.
The agency’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, stated while responding to questions from journalists during a briefing at the headquarters of PPPRA.
Saidu revealed that going forward, PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.
He, however, noted that the role of the agency would be to ensure that oil marketers do not profiteer, as every petrol dealer was, henceforth free to source for product and fix their price.
He said:
This, however, must be in accordance with our code of conduct because as a regulator, it is our duty to protect the consumer and operators must abide by our codes.
Represented by Victor Shidok, the agency’s General Manager, Administration and Human Resources, the PPPRA boss, also confirmed reports that oil marketers were not currently importing petrol because of the scarcity of foreign exchange.
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Meanwhile, the pump price of petrol, in the last three months, increased, with marketers adjusting their pump prices to between N158 and N162 from N148 to N150 in August.
Recall that the increase of petrol price by the Federal Government caused an uproar among Nigerians as it came at a time when citizens had been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In their separate reactions, however, the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) faulted the President, saying his government should fulfill its promise to repair the country’s refineries.
The scarcity of the petrol, especially in December and January, had rocked the country for many years, causing long queues of desperate motorists at filling stations.
