FG won’t intervene in NNPCL, Dangote petrol price face-off – Presidency

The Federal Government has decided not to intervene in the petrol pump pricing dispute between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, and Dangote Refinery.

They stated that both parties are free to set their own market prices for consumers.

President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed the Government’s position on Wednesday in Abuja.

He emphasized that the petroleum market has been deregulated, allowing Dangote and NNPCL to determine their prices based on economic market forces.

Onanuga highlighted that this free market approach could ultimately benefit Nigerian consumers, as competition and pricing wars often lead to lower prices for petrol, also known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

Onanuga said: “The PMS price regime has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPCL you should not forget is a limited liability company.

“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. Even if you go by the terms of the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPCL is on its own. Even though it’s owned by the Federal Government, the state government and local councils and everything, it is operating as a limited liability company.

“You can see that the private marketers have said that they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them, and they may resort to importing fuel.

“It is the consumers who benefit if a price war starts. If NNPC fuel is too much, the public market can go to the market and bring in their own fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.

“So government is not dabbling into this controversy. Dangote is running a private company working on his own, and NNPC is a limited liability company that has the right to fix the price of its own product.”

Currently, the lowest pump price of petrol is N895 per litre, even as NNPCL and Dangote squabble over the exact cost at which the former buys the product from the latter.