FG To Punish Fuel Stations Selling Above ‘Official’ N165 Per Litre
The warning was sequel to the continuous adjustment of fuel pump price by the marketers due to the persistent fuel scarcity witnessed in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT Abuja) and other parts of the country.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, who issued the warning on Monday during a joint inspection on filling stations in Abuja said that the authorities carried out the inspection exercise to enforce the regulations by following up warnings given to the oil marketing companies, particularly those selling above the official price.
Ahmed, who said that NMDPRA carried out the inspection exercise in collaboration with top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC), maintained that the approved national pump price of petrol was still N165 per litre.
According to him, the government would punish defaulters based on its engagement with the Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN).
He emphasised that “We are actually trying to monitor the dispensing to ensure that all the stations with petrol are dispensing all their trucks to reduce the long queues and ensure efficiency in service. We are monitoring the depot sales also, checking the number of trucks that are loaded; this is a serious fact which we look at.”
“There has been a lot of improvement in the distribution of PMS, we have gone round the Airport road and saw a lot of stations selling and discharging fuel. The queues are not long like before and the average trucks we have received in Abuja in the last three days are about 140 trucks against 70 trucks to 80 trucks received before; so there is a lot of improvement,” he added.
“Ahmed however commended transporters “because now they are reacting to the president’s offer of additional N10 as an incentive on their transportation charges. At least we are seeing improvement.”
Recall that President Buhari recently approved the upward review in freight rate of oil transporters to alleviate challenges associated with petrol distribution nationwide. The revised freight rate of petrol took effect from June 1, still maintaining the current regulated pump price of N165 per litre.
According to Ahmed on Monday, President Buhari increased the freight rate of transporters from N10.46 to N20.46. He said this was just to show that the transporters could still transport the product across the nation without loss of revenue which they complained about.
Similarly, the NNPC’s downstream Group Executive Director, Adeyemi Adetunji, reassured Nigerians that there would be adequate fuel supply across the country.
He said, “Today we have 1.9 billion litres of PMS. Lagos is cleared in a couple of days. We will clear the queues in Abuja.”
