NNPC insists: No increase in ex-depot price of petrol in March

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has countermanded the increase announced in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Commission (PPPRA).

The NNPC, on its verified official twitter handle, countered the announcement that was posted on its website on Friday morning.

The tweeted countermand order read: “#NNPC insists no increase in ex-depot price of PMS on March.”

Following popular outcry, the PPPRA has now pulled down the pricing template for March, according to a report by The Guardian.

It reported that Nigeria’s petrol price regulator had pulled down the pricing template for March a few hours after it published it.

“PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT PUBLISHED PRICES ARE ONLY INDICATIVE OF CURRENT MARKET TRENDS,” Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency said on Friday after deleting the template.

The agency waa reacting to the nationwide outcry that welcomed the new template it published on Thursday evening.

The template published Thursday night showed that the retail price of petrol would sell between a market band of N209.61 and N212.61. Marketers usually sell at the upper band.

With ex-depot price standing at N206.42 per litre, the March template showed that the landing cost for petrol per litre is N189.61.

Many Nigerians believed it was insensitive for the government to impose such a fee considering the current inflation rate in the country.

Although the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had said the price would remain static in March to allow smooth dialogue between government and labour unions, it also cautioned against “artificial scarcity”.

NNPC was reacting to the queues for fuel formed across Nigeria last week over fears of a rise in gasoline costs.

Lines of cars waiting to enter petrol stations snarled the traffic in Lagos, while some stations in the capital Abuja stopped selling fuel for fear of losing money if prices rose.

Nigeria said last year it had liberalized the sector and eliminated costly subsidies.

But NNPC has acknowledged it remains the sole gasoline importer. It is also setting prices at fuel depots.

Experts said the decision not to increase prices, even as global gasoline became more expensive, meant the government was incurring subsidy costs.

The lack of transparency around petrol pricing mechanism has been a point of contention for those monitoring whether the subsidy cost has been permanently eliminated and is one of the sticking points over a much-needed World Bank loan.

Moments after the PPPRA announced an increase in the morning, long queues surfaced at fuel stations in Abuja where fuel was selling for as much as N212-N213 per litre.