TheCable

Mele Kyari, group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says the cost of premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, should be N256 per litre at filling stations. 

Kyari said this during an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday.

He said the price increase is necessary if NNPC is to recover the landing cost of fuel importation into the country.

Kyari said the petrol pump price is meant to reflect the current crude oil price which stands at $74.40 per barrel at the international market as at 09:23 GMT on Wednesday.

“Today we are paying N162/litre (for petrol). I am sure many people buy AGO (diesel) in the market and it is selling at N280/litre in the market today,” Kyari said.

“So (there is) nowhere in the world diesel sells more expensive than PMS. That means that the price of petrol anywhere in the world, assuming you are going to sell it at the market, you are going to sell it above that price you have seen.

“Today, from what I can remember, I checked the number two days ago; what would we sell if we are at the filling station today and recover our cost fully is around N256/litre.”

The NNPC GMD said the federal government is still in talks with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) for negotiations on the cost of petrol.

He said based on the ongoing engagements, there will be no fuel price increase in July.

Kyari further said while the subsidy regime wasn’t sustainable, Muhammadu Buhari has directed NNPC to do everything legally possible not to make petrol price out of reach of Nigerians, “especially at this moment”.

“What this means however is that we are taking out cash that could have been used for other things to pay under-recovery,” he added.