The presidency says President Bola Tinubu will not intervene in the controversy that ensued between Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited over the price of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.
Speaking with State House correspondents on Wednesday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said the downstream petroleum sector has been deregulated.
On September 15, the NNPC commenced petrol lifting at Dangote refinery after a protracted period of price negotiations.
On the same day, NNPC said it bought petrol from Dangote refinery at N898 per litre.
However, the Dangote refinery countered the claim, describing it as “both misleading and mischievous”.
The next day, NNPC said petrol will be sold at N950.22 per litre across all its retail outlets in Lagos, while residents in the northern part of Nigeria will pay more for the product, with those in Borno expected to pay the highest PMS pump price of N1,019.22.
Onanuga said with the new regime in the petroleum sector, oil marketers are free to import petrol and sell the product at a reasonable price.
“The PMS regime has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPC should not forget that it is a public limited liability company,” he said.
“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. They are operating in terms of Petroleum Industry Act.
“NNPC is on its own, even though it’s owned by the federal government, the state government and local councils and everything, but it’s operating as a limited liability company.
“You can see what the private market has said that I think they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them. They will resolve to import fuel.
“It is the consumers who benefit if a price war starts. If NNPC fuel is too much, the public market can go to the market and bring in their own fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.”
Onanuga said NNPC has the right to fix petrol price.
The presidential spokesperson said the federal government is promoting alternative energy solutions by offering subsidised conversion costs for those who want to convert to compressed natural gas (CNG) engines.
“Some of the transporters are already converting their vehicles to CNG, and the government has a plan to make sure that about a million of those vehicles run on CNG. The whole idea is that if they run on CNG, the cost of transportation will go down.”
He said the government also has a plan to make sure that private car owners can convert to CNG at a reduced cost.
“For transporters, is almost free for them, but for private vehicle owners, the government has a plan to subsidize, I mean, the cost of converting the vehicle from petrol to CNG,” the spokesperson said.
Also, Onanuga said the administration is encouraging states to develop urban transportation systems to reduce overall transportation costs.
