The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has warned Nigerians against panic buying of petrol, saying it has enough product for the country.
The oil firm said this in a statement posted via its official X platform on Thursday.
The company said the sudden appearance of fuel queues in some parts of Lagos and a few other locations around the country was due to reduced depot load-outs in Apapa.
It said it has supply with the sufficiency of at least 30 days.
“NNPC Retail Ltd notes the appearance of fuel queues in some parts of Lagos and a few other locations around the country,” the NNPCL said.
“This is due to reduced depot loadout in Apapa, Lagos over a few days, and the root cause has since been addressed.
“We assure all Nigerians that there is ample supply with a sufficiency of at least 30 days. Motorists are advised to desist from panic buying as distribution will normalize over the next couple of days,” it said.
Background
President Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech on 29 May.
Following the announcement, the NNPCL directed its outlets nationwide to sell fuel between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price below N200, leading to a significant increase in transportation fares and prices of goods and services.
Again in July, petrol pump prices rose to N617 per litre at various outlets of the NNPCL in Abuja and other parts of the country.
At the time, the NNPCL attributed the rise in the petroleum pump prices in the country to ‘market forces’.
Mr Kyari noted that with the deregulation of the oil sector, market realities would force the price of petrol up sometimes and at other times force it down.
In August, Mr Tinubu assured Nigerians that there would be no further increase in the pump price of petrol, despite the deregulation of the product.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with the president.
“The president wishes to assure Nigerians, following the announcements by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) just yesterday, that there will be no increase in the pump price of petroleum motor spirit anywhere in the country,” the spokesperson said.
“We repeat, the president affirms that there will be no increase in the pump price of petroleum motor spirit.”
Mr Tinubu also acknowledged that there are inefficiencies within the downstream sector that are contributing to the fuel price controversy. He assured that all loopholes associated with the smooth delivery of petroleum products in the country will be addressed immediately.
Earlier in October, the National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, said the Nigerian government had restored the subsidy on petrol, despite the official government policy of ending the subsidy regime.
Mr Osifo, who is also the president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), one of Nigeria’s two largest workers union coalitions, while featuring on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, said due to the cost of crude oil in the international market and the exchange rate, the government still pays subsidies on petrol.
“The government has to come clean. In reality today, there is a subsidy because as of when the earlier price was determined, the price of crude in the international market was somewhere around less than $80 a barrel. But today, it has moved to about $93/94 per barrel for Brent crude. So, because it has moved, then the price (of petrol) also needed to move,” Mr Osifo said.
The NNPCL said that the Nigerian government has not resumed payment of subsidy on petrol.
The NNPCL group chief executive officer, Mele Kyari, who disclosed this to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, explained that the government was recovering its full costs from the imported products.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market and we understand why the marketers are unable to import,” Mr Kyari said.
“We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy.”
Mr Kyari explained further that the government is doing so much to ensure the supply of FX into the market.
“We know that this FX market will stabilize and the current I&E window is around 770. And we know that with those inputs that are already happening, the inputs of the government today will crystallize and also they will come to an equilibrium position in the FX market and this is a dream of this country.
“So they will have a stable FX market, a stable product market where the prices of products will also speak to prices of other commodities. And this is already manifesting and we think this is the economic revolution that this country needs,” he said.
Source- Premium Times Newspaper.