The Presidency announced on Wednesday that President Bola Tinubu will not intervene in the ongoing fuel price dispute between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, made this statement during a briefing with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Onanuga emphasized that both entities operate independently within a deregulated market.
He stated, “The PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) field, the PMS regime, has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPCL should not forget it’s a limited liability company.”
He further explained that the controversy between the two companies is their concern, saying, “Whatever controversy both of them are having is their problem. They are operating, even if you go by the terms of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), NNPCL 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.”
Onanuga noted that consumers would benefit from any potential price war, suggesting that if NNPCL’s prices are too high, the public could opt to import fuel.
He said, “If NNPC fuel is too much, the public market can go to the market and bring in their fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.”
He reiterated that the government would not interfere, stating, “As far as this is concerned, the government is not dabbling into this controversy. Dangote, as a private company, is working on his own. NNPC is a limited liability company, and it has the right to fix the price of its own and so on.”
Instead of intervening in the fuel price dispute, Onanuga revealed that the government plans to promote alternative energy solutions, such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), which he described as a cheaper option for consumers. He pointed out that CNG costs about ₦230 per litre, compared to PMS, which is around ₦850 per litre.
He noted, “The whole idea is that if they run on CNG, the cost of transportation will go down.”
Onanuga added that the government aims to have about a million vehicles running on CNG and intends to subsidize conversion costs for private vehicle owners.
He stated, “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 the gap.”
He highlighted the administration’s efforts to encourage states to develop urban transportation systems to reduce overall transportation costs, noting, “Only Lagos state has an urban transport system. Cities like Ibadan, Kaduna, and Kano don’t have it. But this government has a plan to encourage all of them to start urban transport.”
Onanuga concluded by saying that the government has plans to help private vehicle owners convert to CNG at a subsidized cost, with transporters receiving even greater incentives, stating, “For transporters, it is almost free for them, but for private vehicle owners, the government has the plan to subsidize the cost of converting the vehicle from petrol to CNG.”