The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) yesterday maintained that the pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) remains at N165 per litre. This is despite the position of some oil marketers that the current pump price for petrol in the country was unsustainable following long queues that have surfaced in some cities across the nation. NMDPRA’s position was made known by, Mr. Ugbugo Ukoha, Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retail Infrastructure (NMDPRA) on Tuesday after visiting jetties in Apapa, Lagos. Ukoha noted that the crisis between Russia and Ukraine had led to an increment in the cost of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), which is used in transporting petroleum products from the depots to the retail outlets.
“So, when we observed that this poses a big challenge in the movement of other products, we made the representation to the Minister of State for Petroleum and Mr. President graciously approved that the freight rate for trucks be increased,” he said.
“There’s a N10 addition, which we will apply to the different routes to enable trucks to move to docks easily with less burden.
“With these kinds of efforts from the government, we can only continue to appeal to operators within this industry to play by the rules.
“PMS is a regulated product and the prices are fixed. The ex-depot price is known. The pump price remains N165 and the authority is ever ready to enforce those rules.
“So, we will continue to urge Nigerians to keep within these operating rules.”
This is coming just as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday assured Nigerians that it has over two billion litres of PMS that could last for the next 34 days in the country, adding that there was enough stock to meet the nation’s demand.
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