The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, stated on Thursday that petrol pump prices will fluctuate based on crude oil prices in the global market.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Petroleum Industry Stakeholders Forum (PISF) in Abuja, Lokpobiri emphasized that the downstream sector is now fully deregulated, with the government no longer setting fuel prices.
This stance comes after depot owners recently increased petrol prices from N909 to N970 per litre, sparking concerns that pump prices at filling stations could exceed N1,000 per litre.
Lokpobiri also highlighted that deregulation has eradicated the malpractices linked to the petrol subsidy regime.
He said: “The whole essence of deregulation is for price to find its level. Before now you will agree with me that every day you are hearing negative news about petrol subsidies. Today, you journalists have no negative news about petrol subsidies because it is completely regulated, and the price will find its level.
“As oil price goes up, petrol price will go up and as oil price comes down, price will come up. During the Christmas season, I was in Bayelsa, and I tried to go around different filling stations. Some filling stations were selling N1,020, others were selling N999, while others were selling N1,015.
“What we are concerned about, and I’ve always had that discussion with you, with the Authority Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, is that the government is more interested in quality control. Government is more interested in availability and what the government is particularly interested in is dispensation of the right quantity.
“If you are buying 10 litres of PMS, let it be that you are not short changed by the retail filling station. That is where we have issues. And once there is competition, people have a choice, and that’s why you don’t see any queues”.
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