FG moves to shut errant filling stations as petrol hits N1,000/litre

Pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, are currently being fixed between N900 and N1,000/litre by many filling stations operated by independent oil marketers.

Though the petrol prices at NNPC stations range from N568 to N617/litre, which often leads to queues at the stations owners of these stations seem not to care, as much as they are assured of patronage. 

Meanwhile, with many Nigerians concerned about the high cost of the commodity by independent petrol dealers, the Federal Government says it is resolved to shut down any filling stations caught dispensing PMS at exorbitant rates.

Declaring this through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the government stressed that it was not in the interest of Nigerians for marketers to profiteer in the sales of PMS.

Independent oil marketers claimed that they’ve been buying petrol from private depot owners for as high as N850/litre since last week and that this was why the pump prices were high.

The spokesperson of the NMDPRA, George Ene-Ita, however, argued that the petrol price reports that the regulator gets from its officials at the depots were different.

He noted that their “depot people see a different price because we ask them to publish the prices at the depots every day and it is not N850/litre. Our field agents at the depots give us a different figure.”

Kicking against the reality that some filling stations operated by independent marketers in Lagos and many other states dispense their products for as high as N900 and N1,000/litre, the NMDPRA Official said, “If we get these outlets, all we do is to try and shut them down, because NNPC is the company that brings in the product and they tell us how much they sell as their ex-depot prices to off-takers. And we sit down together and work out the margins and there is no way it should be that high.”

The NMDPRA official further noted that there was no way the agency could reconcile the high cost of petrol sold by independent marketers.

He sounded a note of warning to marketers involved in profiteering to desist from the act, stressing that the agency would not fold its hands and allow operators to cheat Nigerians.