The Federal Government has vowed to shut down filling stations charging up to N1,000 per litre for petrol or Premium Motor Spirit PMS.
Queues have mounted at petrol stations nationwide over a prevailing fuel scarcity and desperate motorists have been buying at expensive prices of over N1,000 sometimes at dispensing stations.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority frowned at the escalation in pump station pricing of petrol, saying that it was not beneficial for Nigerians if marketers engaged in price gouging during the sale of PMS.
“We don’t expect it to be higher than N650/litre,” said a spokesman of rg government regulator.
Independent oil marketers have reported that they have been purchasing petrol from private depot owners at rates as high as N850 per litre since last week.
They attributed the rising pump prices to this increase in their acquisition costs.
However, NMDPRA’s spokesperson, George Ene-Ita, highlighted that the petrol price information received from their officials at the depots did not confirm the reports being circulated.
He said, “Our depot people see a different price because we ask them to publish the prices at the depots every day and it is not N850/litre. Our field agents at the depots give us a different figure.
“If we get these outlets, all we do is to try and shut them down, because NNPC is the company that brings in the product and they tell us how much they sell as their ex-depot prices to off-takers. And we sit down together and work out the margins and there is no way it should be that high.
“Once we get these outlets, we are going to shut them down. NNPC tells us how much they sell and there is no way the pump prices should be that high. We don’t expect it to be higher than N650/litre.”
