During a news conference in Abuja, on Tuesday, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Farouk Ahmed, announced that as of January 1st, 2016 all retail stations owned by the National Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would sell petrol at N86 per litre while those independently owned would sell petrol at N86.5 per litre.
It will be recalled that SaharaReporters published a report
which quoted Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for
Petroleum, as stating that the price per litre would be N85.
According to Mr. Ahmed, the new price was the result of a
new template created by the PPPRA which is designed to
calculate a fuel prices based upon market factors. He also
noted that the price would be reviewed on a quarterly basis
in order to adjust for changes in the price of crude oil.
“Since 2007, while crude oil price has been moving up and
down the template remained the same.
“This made it necessary for us to introduce a mechanism
whereby the template would be sensitive to the price of
crude oil.
However, the template is not static, as there would be a
quarterly review and if there is any major shift, the Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources would be expected to call
for a review, either upward or downward,” Mr. Ahmed
explained.
However, the move has been met with harsh criticism by
the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). The General
Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson stated that the recent
actions taken by the PPPRA were nothing more than, "a
way for the deregulation of petrol prices through the back
door." The NLC called for the government to reconstitute
the board of the PPPRA and indicated that its National
Executive Committee would convene during the New Year in
order to best ascertain how to react to the recent actions by
the government.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary warned that if any oil
marketer was found to be selling above their assigned price
they would be sanctioned by the PPPRA.
The PPPRA planned to tackle the issue of fuel scarcity by
granting the NNPC 78% of the total allocated volume of oil
for the first quarter. Theoretically, this would mean that the
issue of fuel scarcity would be alleviated as the NNPC
possesses a superior fuel distribution network in the
country.
In addition, this action would mean that 78% of the oil sold
in the first quarter of 2016 would be sold at the lower price
of N86 per litre.
http://saharareporters.com/2015/12/29/pppra-announces-petrol-be-sold-n86-litre-not-n85