The Federal Government says it will not intervene in the fuel pricing dispute between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), noting that the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) market has been deregulated.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, who clarified this on Wednesday, said the presidency’s decision aligns with the Petroleum Industry Act which grants the NNPCL autonomy as an independent entity.
Onanuga clarified that Dangote Refinery, as a private company, has the right to set its prices.
The presidential aide stressed that since Premium Motor Spirit has been deregulated, players like the Dangote Petroleum Refinery have the right to sell their products at their fixed prices.
He explained that a free market would ultimately benefit Nigerian consumers, adding that other private marketers could import fuel and sell at competitive prices if they consider NNPC or Dangote prices too high.
Quoting Onanuga, “the PMS field, the PMS regime, has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPC should not forget it’s a limited liability company.
“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. They are operating, even if you go by the 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 importing fuel because they clear market at the end of the day.
“Is the consumer who benefits 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.
“So my answer is that, as far as the concern, the government is not dabbling into this controversy.”
He explained further that the administration is focused on providing Nigerians cheaper alternative fuels like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
He said CNG costs about N230 per litre compared to PMS at around N850 per litre.
“Government has a program which somebody mentioned earlier about CNG, that government wants to make sure that Nigerians have a choice.
“If you don’t want to use PMS, you can use CNG, and you can see what’s going on in many of our cities, Lagos, Ibadan, Benin and some other places where transporters are already embracing CNG.
“And the whole idea that CNG, the equivalent of gas to PMS is the gap, is too, is very, very wide. If you want to buy a liter of petrol, if they sell it, let’s say N850, what they’re going to get by the equivalent of CNG is about N230, and you can see the gap.
“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,” Onanuga added.