The Nigerian government has threatened to harshly punish filling stations that continue to sell premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, over the legal pump price of N165.
The warning followed ongoing price adjustments made by marketers at the fuel pumps as a result of the ongoing fuel shortages in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja and other regions of the nation.
Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), who gave the warning on Monday during a joint inspection of filling stations in Abuja, said that the authorities conducted the inspection exercise to enforce the regulations by following up warnings given to the oil marketing companies, particularly those selling above the official price.
Ahmed maintained that the approved national pump price of gasoline was still N165 per litre and claimed that the NMDPRA carried out the inspection exercise in collaboration with senior executives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC).
He said that the government’s involvement with the Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and the Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria would determine how it would deal with defaulters (MOMAN).
He emphasised that “We are actually trying to monitor the dispensing to ensure that all the stations with petrol are dispensing all their trucks to reduce the long queues and ensure efficiency in service. We are monitoring the depot sales also, checking the number of trucks that are loaded; this is a serious fact which we look at.”
“There has been a lot of improvement in the distribution of PMS, we have gone round the Airport road and saw a lot of stations selling and discharging fuel. The queues are not long like before and the average trucks we have received in Abuja in the last three days are about 140 trucks against 70 trucks to 80 trucks received before; so there is a lot of improvement,” he added.
Ahmed did praise the transporters, though, saying that they are now responding to the president’s offer of an extra N10 incentive on their transportation fees. At least the situation is getting better.
Recall that President Buhari recently authorized an increase in oil carriers’ freight rates in order to address problems with the national distribution of gasoline. Since June 1, the regulated pump price of N165 per litre has been maintained notwithstanding the revised freight rate of gasoline.
President Buhari raised the freight rate for carriers from N10.46 to N20.46, according to Ahmed on Monday. He explained that the purpose of this was to demonstrate that the product could still be transported across the country without causing the transporters’ complained-about financial loss.
Adeyemi Adetunji, downstream group executive director for the NNPC, similarly assured Nigerians that there would be sufficient gasoline supply throughout the nation.
He said, “Today we have 1.9 billion litres of PMS. Lagos is cleared in a couple of days. We will clear the queues in Abuja.”
