The Nigerian government has threatened to sanction petrol filling stations selling fuel above N165 per liter, which is the official pump price.
Chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, made this known during a joint inspection on filling stations in Abuja.
The Nigerian capital, and many parts of the country, has been experiencing serious petroleum products shortages, with long lines of vehicles queuing for products at filling stations.
The NMDPRA boss and his team embarked on the inspection exercise to enforce the regulations by following up warnings given to the oil marketing companies, particularly those selling above the official price of N145.
The NMDPRA team was accompanied in the exercise in collaboration with top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC).
According to him, the federal government approved pump price for fuel across the nation still remains N165 per litre, warning those selling above the official price to desist or be ready to face punishment.
The government’s warning was as a result of constant adjustment of fuel pump price by the marketers due to the fuel scarcity in the country, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT Abuja) and other densely populated parts of the country.
Ahmed said the securities agencies will deal decisively with any dissident to the provisions of the law as regards official prices of petroleum products.
“Government would punish defaulters based on its engagement with the Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN).
“We are actually trying to monitor the dispensing to ensure that all the stations with petrol are dispensing all their trucks to reduce the long queues and ensure efficiency in service. We are monitoring the depot sales also, checking the number of trucks that are loaded; this is a serious fact which we look at.
“There has been a lot of improvement in the distribution of PMS, we have gone round the Airport road and saw a lot of stations selling and discharging fuel. The queues are not long like before and the average trucks we have received in Abuja in the last three days are about 140 trucks against 70 trucks to 80 trucks received before; so there is a lot of improvement,” he said.
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