No plan to hike fuel price, says NNPC, PPMC

PPPRA says the reappearance of long queues at filling stations is artificial.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Wednesday denied reports of an imminent hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly called petrol.

The denial came in the wake of pockets of queues by motorists that surfaced at filling stations around the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, following speculations that government plans to increase the price of the product.

The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Omar Farouk, who said there were no plans to increase the price of petrol, claimed the NNPC had sufficient stock of the commodity to meet nationwide demand.

Urging motorists to desist from panic buying, Mr. Farouk said the stock of fuel at the depots across the country is enough to last the country for several weeks.

The corporation noted that the re-emergence of long queues at filling stations around Abuja and environs was due to hoarding by station owners in anticipation of fuel price hike.

He implored filling station owners to refrain from hoarding fuel to help reduce the long queues around town.

The NNPC also cautioned products marketers loading petrol from various depots not to hoard the product as erring marketers would be sanctioned.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA had earlier said the reappearance of long queues at filling stations across the country was artificial and uncalled for.

The PPPRA spokesperson, Lanre Oladele, confirmed that there was enough stock of products to keep the country going for several days.

According to Mr. Oladele, with the release of import licenses to marketers for the first quarter of 2014, there was no reason for fuel scarcity.

“We can assure Nigerians that we have enough stock to wet the nation. What we have is artificial scarcity to create false impression whereas the entire nation is wet with the products,” Mr. Oladele said.

He advised Nigerians not to engage in panic buying, as the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, a subsidiary of the NNPCresponsible for the supply of the products, has made adequate provision for the supply of the commodity to all parts of the country.

“PPMC has a robust stock of fuel, apart from the stock in NNPC depots to serve the country for several days,” the PPMC spokesperson, Nasir Imodagbe, said.