The Federal Government says the fixed pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) remains at N165 per litre as stipulated in the petroleum product pricing template.
The government also advised Nigerians against panic buying of PMS, also known as petrol, disclosing that the country currently had over two billion litres of PMS in various depots.
This was made known by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company after their visit to jetties in Apapa, Lagos on Tuesday.
The depots visited by the top officials of the agencies were NIPCO Depot and TotalEnergies Depot.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had on Monday advised its members to adjust their pump price for PMS to a minimum of N180 per litre.
The marketers had said the move was necessitated by the increment in the ex-depot price of PMS by some private depots where they are buying the product from.
However, Mr Ugbugo Ukoha, Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retail Infrastructure, NMDPRA, maintained that petrol was a regulated product and urged marketers to comply with the pricing template.
Ukoha said the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had led to an increment in the cost of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) which was a critical product used in transporting of petroleum products from the depots to the retail outlets.
He said: “So, when we observed that this poses a big challenge in the movement of other products, we made the representation to the Minister of State for Petroleum And Mr President graciously approved that the freight rate for trucks be increased.
“There’s a N10 addition which we will apply to the different routes to enable trucks to move to docks easily with less burden.
“With these kinds of efforts from government, we can only continue to appeal to operators within this industry to play by the rules.
“PMS is a regulated product and the prices are fixed. The ex-depot price is known. The pump price remains N165 and the authority is ever ready to enforce those rules.So, we will continue to urge Nigerians to keep within these operating rules. “
Ukoha said the focus of the stakeholders in the next few days would be to close the supply gaps and resolve the ongoing scarcity of petrol as soon as possible.
