…no cause for alarm, says, Kwara IPMAN
There are strong indications that the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol may soon be increased as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has expressed their dissatisfaction over the current selling price of N145 per litre in the country.
The Corporation said that oil price in Nigeria is the cheapest in the West Africa sub-region.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari, yesterday, said that the low fuel price and smuggling activities are the two key factors hampering high revenue generation of the agency.
He said, “The N145 per litre fuel price regime Nigeria runs against the N350 per litre most of the other West African countries operate, encourages smuggling, which invariably affected revenue generation for the agency and by extension the country.
“It is even very difficult for us to make the Petroleum Product available at N145,” he said.
He added that Nigeria is not benefiting optimally from gas production.
He however informed the Senate leadership that as far as projected daily production level is concerned, remarkable achievement has been made with the 2.3million barrel daily production being recorded as against 1.6m barrel recorded on daily basis in 2016.
He assured that before the year runs out, the corporation would meet the revenue projection of the appropriations. According to him, the NNPC was working tirelessly with the customs and security agencies in controlling and containing cross border activities of the oil smugglers.
The Director of Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Rufai Ahmed Ishaku, called on the National Assembly for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, saying that doing so will significantly transform the oil and gas industry and attract revenues.
When contacted by our reporter on the telephone, the Secretary of Kwara State branch of Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Testing Oluwatoba said, “I’m just hearing it from you. There is no cause for alarm as we’re business people. When they increase the fuel price if we have the money we’ll buy and if we can’t afford the price, we will close market.”
He however stressed that the labour unions are in the best position to respond to the issue.
