Federal Government has denied reintroducing petrol subsidy.
It also said the pockets of queues observed in petrol stations nationwide result from hiccups in distribution from the country’s south to the north, not a lack of supply.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market, and we understand why the marketers are unable to import.
“We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy,” the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, told State House Correspondents after an audience with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa.
Kyari’s assertion comes barely 48 hours after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association confirmed the return of fuel subsidy.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, National President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, said the government still subsidised petrol due to the cost of crude oil in the international market and the exchange rate.
“They [government] are paying subsidies today. In reality, today, there is subsidy because, as of when the earlier price was determined, the price of crude in the international market was around $80 for a barrel.
Addressing journalists about the gradual return of fuel queues on Monday, the NNPC boss said, “We have seen in very few states pockets of very low queues not unconnected with the road situation.
“We’re seeing the number of blockades on our road crossing products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country and it takes them much longer than they do now.
They have to reroute the trucks around many locations for them to be able to reach, creating delays and some supply gaps. But that has been filled and we do not see such problems again.”
While arguing that supply remains robust, Kyari explained that the full deregulation of the downstream sector has created market competition.
He said this phenomenon has led to minuscule price variations across gas stations, with consumers naturally patronising marketers with a lesser pump price.
“You must have noticed some fuel stations will reduce prices by two Naira and three Naira, so customers will naturally run to the places where you have that price reduction.
“That creates panic because those who don’t know why they are doing it will think that something wrong is happening.
“Supply is robust. We have over 1.4 billion litres of product, both marine and land. Also, there are no issues around delivering those products onto the land. So, there is no fear, nothing to bother
about,” Kyari argued.
The NNPC Chief revealed that the NNPC is liaising with the marketers to address the FOREX challenges.
Punch
