BY Bunmi Aduloju
The federal government says the fixed pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) remains N165 per litre as stipulated in the petroleum product pricing template.
This was made known by top officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), after a visit to some depots in Lagos, on Tuesday.
The depots visited were NIPCO Depot and TotalEnergies Depot.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had, on Monday, said it could no longer sell premium motor spirit (PMS) at the regulated price due to a “hostile” business environment.
However, Ugbugo Ukoha, executive director, distribution systems, storage, and retail infrastructure, NMDPRA, urged marketers to comply with the pricing system.
Ukoha said the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had led to an increment in the cost of diesel, which was a critical product used in transporting petroleum products from the depots to the retail outlets.
“So, when we observed that this poses a big challenge in the movement of other products, we made the representation to the minister of state for petroleum and Mr. President graciously approved that the freight rate for trucks be increased,” Ukoha said.
“There’s a N10 addition, which we will apply to the different routes to enable trucks to move to docks easily with less burden.
“With these kinds of efforts from the government, we can only continue to appeal to operators within this industry to play by the rules.
“PMS is a regulated product and the prices are fixed. The ex-depot price is known. The pump price remains N165 and the authority is ever ready to enforce those rules.
“So, we will continue to urge Nigerians to keep within these operating rules.”
Ukoha said the focus of the stakeholders in the next few days would be to close the supply gap and resolve the ongoing scarcity of petrol as soon as possible.
Also, Adetunji Adeyemi, group executive director, downstream, NNPC, said the purpose of the visit to the depots was to get first-hand information on the challenges responsible for the current scarcity.
Adeyemi said despite the challenges globally, in terms of the supply chain, NNPC had continued to provide petroleum products, specifically PMS to Nigerians.
“Today we have about 2 billion litres of PMS in-country, which is about 34 days sufficiency. So, there is sufficient petrol in the country,” Adeyemi said.
“We are working with the entire stakeholders and players in the downstream sector to ensure that this product gets to the distribution channels and also the stations.
“We want Nigerians to continue to enjoy the free flow of petroleum products.”
Also speaking, Isiyaku Abdullahi, managing director, PPMC, said the company has been supporting transporters and marketers with diesel in form of palliative to ensure the smooth distribution of PMS to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians.
Abdullahi said three vessels carrying about 60 metric tons of PMS were currently discharging at the Apapa jetty, which would be further transported to Lagos and other parts of the country to restore normalcy.
Meanwhile, TheCable had reported how petrol queues recently resurfaced in Ibadan, Abuja, and Lagos.
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