No fuel price hike, says NNPC
There won’t be increase in fuel price, despite the rise in the landing cost of imported fuel, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Public Affairs Group General Manager, Ndu Ughamadu, has said.
He said the landing cost goes up when the international price increases, adding that it is a normal occurrence in the global crude oil market.
He said the government has fixed N145 as official pump price for premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol, adding that marketers were free to sell it at either the regulated price or below it, depending on market forces.
In an interview with The Nation Ughamadu denied any increase. He said: “NNPC is yet to give Nigerians the new landing cost of fuel as it is not within its responsibilities to do so. The responsibility of letting the country know what the new landing cost of fuel lies with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and being a Federal Government owned- parastatal like NNPC, NNPC cannot exercise control over what the PPPRA does or is expected to do in the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
“The global oil industry moves or operates in line with the market forces. Once there is rise in the global price of crude oil, related activities move in similar direction. That is why the increase in the price of crude and its attendant rise in the price of brining the product to Nigeria do not bother us (Nigeria) much. Traditionally, refiners of crude abroad ten to increase the cost of processing crude oil into finished products like Premium Motor Spirit, Kerosene and Diesel, when the price of crude rises at the global market.”
He said the landing cost had increased in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter.
The landing cost as at last December 22 was ₦171.4 per litre when the price of crude was $64 per barrel. At over $80 per barrel, the landing cost would be well above ₦180.
He said the price of crude was below $50 per barrel in the first quarter, stressing that the price of crude is $81 per barrel. He added that the country should expect increase in the landing cost of fuel. According to him, the government, has huge under-recovery to battle in view of the rise in the landing cost.
Ughamadu said the under-recovery rate is the gap between the cost of buying fuel abroad and the that of selling it at home. He said the government has been subsidising the cost of importing fuel, adding that the corporation was doing to avert fuel scarcity its attendant strains on the economy.
He said the level of fuel imports by NNPC had grown, adding that the country consumes a little over 50million litres of fuel.
It would be recalled that the government has taken over fuel import as marketers don’t find it profitable to import, especially without subsidy reimbursement.
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