TheCable

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has deleted a petrol pricing template announcing an increase in the retail price of petrol.

The template, published on its website on Thursday night, was deleted on Friday morning amid the outrage over the price increase.

The template had said the recommended retail price is between N209.61 and N212.61 per litre. The landing cost of petrol was put at N189.61.

The ex-depot price, which is the rate marketers get the product, was fixed at N206.42.

The March template published by the PPPRA

Moments after the increase was announced, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) insisted there will be no increase in the ex-depot price of petrol in March.

When TheCable visited the link to the PPPRA template, it returned an error message: “Page not found (404). It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.”

A screenshot of the section where the template was published

The PPPRA is an agency of government saddled with the responsibility of determining the price, monitoring and regulating the supply and distribution of petroleum products.

When Nigeria adopted the price modulation template in March 2020, Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the agency will issue a monthly guide to NNPC and marketers on the appropriate pricing regime.

“The agency is further directed to modulate pricing in accordance with prevailing market dynamics and respond appropriately to any further oil market development,” Sylva said at the time.