Despite the rise in the price of crude oil in the international market, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has ruled out any increment in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in February 2021, saying the corporation has enough supply for 40 days.
In a tweet on Thursday morning, NNPC’s Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru dismissed rumours about an imminent upward review of petrol price.
“NNPC has not increased its ex-depot price. I am certain that NNPC is not likely to increase its ex-depot price in February,” Obateru stated.
He added that the NNPC has a stock of petrol that can last over 40 days and allayed fears of an impending scarcity of the product.
NNPC’s spokesman further called on relevant regulatory authorities to step up monitoring of the activities of marketers to sanction those involved in products hoarding or arbitrary increase in pump price.
The national oil company’s reaction comes after many Nigerians started complaining of buying the product far above the official N162 per litre.
The concern became more pronounced last week after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, urged Nigerians to prepare to bear the pains that will arise from the expected hike due to the steady recovery of international crude oil prices.
It would be recalled that the nation’s downstream sector was deregulated in March 2020 with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, stating that the prices of petroleum products would be determined by prevailing market forces.
On Thursday morning, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March traded above $60 yesterday, while the Brent settled at $63. Both crude benchmarks added over 12 percent in value since the beginning of February.
In most of Nigeria’s commercial capital, consumers resorted to panic buying of petrol products across some states, resulting in fuel queues along some routes in the metropolis.
Many fuel stations adjusted their fuel pump prices from N162.50k to N165 per litre, while others went as high as N170.00 per litre.
Some filling stations shut their outlets altogether.
