TheCable

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has urged oil marketers to keep their retail outlets open to customers.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Farouk Ahmed, the authority’s chief executive officer (CEO), directed the oil marketers to prevent hoarding.

He said the commission would be engaging with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to ensure there is a continuous flow of petroleum products, especially petrol, to prevent any shortfall in the country.

“Now, we have noticed a few queues, especially FCT and other parts of the country, and this is just panic buying as a reaction to the pronouncement by Mr. President,” he said.

“Again, we are calling all and sundry to take it easy and everything should be okay because the law has taken its course and we will, as regulators, ensure that the consumers are not taken advantage of.

“And we are going to be working with the other agency (Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission) to ensure that we abide by the provisions of the law.

“We are also calling on all the marketing companies, especially the big ones: MOMAN, DAPPMAN, IPMAN, to continue opening up their petrol stations.

“And there should not be any hoarding because the regulator is going to look at that to ensure that the customers are well taken care of.” 

Meanwhile, he said the commission was in support of President Bola Tinubu’s directive to end the petrol subsidy regime.

Ahmed said the president’s pronouncement was in tandem with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which states that subsidy should be removed from February 2022.

“The national assembly also provided a budgetary allocation for subsidy for 2022 up till now in 2023. Therefore, the pronouncement of the president is actually in line with the provisions of the law,” Ahmed said.

“The good thing about it is that NNPC, the supplier of last resort, has been struggling. And for NNPC to survive, this action is actually necessary to respond as urgently as possible.”

Following the removal of petrol subsidy, consumers had complained that some filling stations closed down operations.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had said consumers should expect an increase in the price of petrol.

The previous administration had promised that the subsidy payments would no longer be made from next month, allocating N3.36 trillion for the first half of the year.

In April, Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance and national planning, said the federal government secured an $800 million facility from the World Bank to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on “vulnerable Nigerians”.