The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, has said the federal government is not paying subsidy for the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
Mr Kyari, who said this on Monday while addressing state house journalists in Abuja, also disclosed that the FG has about 1.4 billion litres of product at both marine and land.
He said: “No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market and we understand why the marketers are unable to import.
“We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing where there is no subsidy.
Mr Kyari said this in reaction to a statement made by the National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, who on Friday, said the Nigerian government has restored subsidy on petrol, despite the official government policy of breaking with the subsidy regime since May.
Last week, Many Nigerians had expressed worries over the recent reappearance of queues in many fueling stations across the country.
But in reacting to the development, Mr Kyari while speaking to journalists after a closed-door meeting with President Tinubu explained that the recent queues across some fueling stations especially in the northern region are caused by the bad roads and number of blockades of products from the southern depots.
He said: “We have seen in very few states pockets of very low queues. Not unconnected with the road situation that we’re seeing the number of blockades on our road crossing products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country and it takes them a much longer time than they do now.
“They have to reroute the trucks around many, many locations for them to be able to reach and that created delays and some supply gaps. But that has been filled and we do not see any of such problems again. And secondly, because of the full deregulation that we have in this sector, marketers are now competing amongst themselves.
“So you must have noticed some fuel stations will reduce their prices by two Naira and three Naira so customers will naturally run to the places where you have that reduction in prices.
“And that creates panic, because for those who don’t know why they are doing it, they will think that there’s something wrong happening, or there’s an ominous sign of scarcity or people start queuing up in the fuel stations. Otherwise, there is no challenge. Supply is robust.
“We have over 1.4 billion litres of product in our hands both marine and land. Also there are no issues around delivery of those products into the land. So there is no fear, nothing to bother about.
“But we are also happy that the market forces are now playing out and marketers are competing and of course there are a few issues we’re engaging them to resolve alongside other agencies of government and critical issues around access to foreign exchange.
He said that the FX markets are expected to stabilise, while the I&E window is now at 770.
“And as you all know, the government is doing so much to ensure supply of FX into the market.
“We know that the FX markets will stabilize and the current I&E window is around 770. And we know that with those inputs that’s already happening, the inputs of the government today will crystallize and also they will come to an equilibrium position in the FX market and this is a dream of this country.
“So they will have a stable FX market, a stable product market where the prices of products will also speak to prices of other commodities. And this is already manifesting and we think this is the economic revolution that this country needs.”
