The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has
affirmed that mega stations of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, are supposed to sell fuel at a “much lower price”
than the price which other marketers are dispensing.
Regretting
that the mega stations are selling between N143 and N145, Kachikwu, who
doubles as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, pointed out that the
Petroleum ministry and relevant agencies cannot guarantee rational
behaviour of managers at all NNPC Mega stations across the country.
He
disclosed this in Abuja on Monday while addressing members of the House
of Representatives during a special interactive session on the “New
Framework for PMS Supply and Distribution” organised by the lower
chamber.
The minister spoke in response to a question on why NNPC
stations which got products from the nation’s refineries at little or no
cost were selling almost at the same price as independent marketers,
which sold at N145 per litre.
Kachikwu however noted that
monitoring was necessary with regard to product sale at a price that was
below those of independent marketers.
“That is being looked at. The NNPC mega stations are supposed to sell
at a much lower price than the other marketers but right now some of
them are selling between N143 and N145.
“But that is something we are looking at correcting,” he said.
The
minister maintained that this was to “reduce nuisance value potential
of the stations in the metropolis while stations in the hinterland are
to sell at N135 per litre.”
The lawmakers asked the minister to
state the obvious by telling Nigerians that there was no deregulation of
any kind but a price increase resulting from foreign exchange
differential since the government still controlled the price.
Kachikwu
told the House that the decision taken was aimed at curbing the
problems of product diversion, hoarding, under-dispensing and pipeline
vandalism.
“We first looked at the number of litres on which subsidy was being paid.
“The
new policy is to address both subsidy issues as well as product
availability and distribution which is saving Nigeria about one billion
dollars quarterly,” he stated.
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