The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has said it will no longer fix prices or release templates for petrol prices.
The Authority chief executive (ACE), Engr Farouk Ahmed, explained that under the liberalised market, market forces are allowed to dictate prices.
Ahmed added: “We put the regulation in place, we make sure quality control is complied with, we make sure the product is there and we give licence to a prospective importer. The market is now open for everybody that wants to import as far as they meet all the requirements. So, it is not about the NNOC alone. For everybody in the sector, we make sure we guide their operations whether at the depot or wherever the product is but we will not put a cap to say this is what the price must be. As far as we are concerned in the NMDPRA, this is not like before when the PPPRA fixes the price. In a deregulated market, it is the market force that dictates the price.”
Ahmed explained that the NNPC’s role is to fix the prices of the petrol it imported and not take over the responsibilities of the Authority.
“In the case of the NNPC, the organisation is the sole importer at this point. We told the NNPC to recover its costs because they know how much it cost them to import the product and sell it. Of course, we also know how much shipping, offshore, ex-depot and ex-pump are. But we cannot tell them to sell at a price because the market is deregulated,” he said.
The NMDPRA chief also revealed that the Federal Government has officially scrapped petroleum equalisation as well as the national transport allowance.