Nigerians would pay the actual cost for petrol sooner or later-NNPC

By our reporter| Between N100 billion and N120 billion is paid every month to subsidise Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said on Thursday.-

The Group General Manager (GMD) of NNPC, Mele Kyari, who made the disclosure at the weekly presidential ministerial media briefing on Thursday in Abuja, lamented that the burden placed upon NNPC by the ongoing subsidisation of the cost of petrol in the country was overwhelming.

According to Kyari, Nigerians would have to pay the actual cost for petrol sooner or later as the product was currently being sold below the cost of importation, causing the NNPC to pay the difference.

The oil giant, he stated can no longer bear the monumental cost, insisting market forces must be allowed to determine the pump price of petrol in the country in the nearest future.

He, however, stopped short of calling the shortfall payment a subsidy, stressing that the fund was paid to maintain the pump price of petrol at the current level.

When asked when the corporation would stop subsidising petrol, Kyari declined to give a specific date.

Also speaking, minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, gave an update on happenings in the nation’s petroleum sector.

According to him, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly would be passed by April 2021.

The bill, he said, would not suffer a setback, going by all indications from the leadership of the National Assembly.

Sylva equally stressed the importance for Nigeria to steer away from oil to gas, adding that the 20-year-old PIB would attract a lot of investments to the gas sector.

On the issue of having functional refineries in the country, Sylva faulted Senator Dino Melaye’s analysis of the proposed rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.

According to him, Melaye is no expert on refinery and should, therefore, not impress his views on an area he is not conversant with.

The minister said the Federal Government remained committed to its promise to deliver a functional refinery to Nigerians in due time.