The development comes as parts of the
country including Lagos and the federal capital territory (FCT), are currently
battling fuel scarcity.
Oil marketers had made a case for the
increment of petrol pump price due to “hostile environment”.
Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer
(CEO), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority
(NMDPRA), said this on Monday during a joint inspection of fuel stations in Abuja.
The exercise was carried out in
collaboration with some top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Company Limited (NNPC), Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC) and the
NMDPRA.
The fuel stations inspected were Shafa
Energy, Shema, Ardova Plc and NIPCO fuel stations in Lugbe, Airport Road,
Abuja.
He said the inspection aimed at taking
action to enforce the regulations through follow-up warning against selling
above the official price.
Ahmed said the pump price of PMS is still
N165 per litre and remained sacrosanct.
He added that the price of the commodity
had not changed as the government had not made any other decision on it.
Ahmed, therefore, said the authority would
take action against defaulters because based on its engagement with the Depots
and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers
of Nigeria (MOMAN), they were warned against overpricing at depots.
He said as a regulator, there were a series
of actions it could take including withdrawal of service from a particular
depot, shutting down and penalising defaulters’ outlets, among others.
According to him, the inspection was an
ongoing exercise as the authority had seven teams going around different
locations.
He added that NNPC teams were also going
around fuel stations with support from the security agencies.
“We are 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 service efficiency,” NAN quoted Ahmed as
saying.
“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.”
Ahmed said President Muhammadu Buhari
recently increased the freight rate of transporters by N10, which was a huge
jump from N10.46 to N20.46
“Credit also goes to transporters because
now they are reacting to the President’s offer of additional N10 as an
incentive on their transportation charges. At least we are seeing improvement,”
he said.
Ahmed said the action was taken to show
that the transporters could still move the product across the country without
loss of revenue — a concern transporters had raised.
Meanwhile, he said the authority had
advised oil marketers to warn their station managers to desist from selling the
product to peddlers in jerry cans as it was one of the issues the sector was
grappling with.
“Once they do not comply, we are going to
shut and deal with that particular station affected,’’ he said.