By Ayo Yusuf
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari has blamed market forces for the sudden rise in petrol pump price from N540 to N617 per litre.
Mr. Kyari offered this explanation on Tuesday following a meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Aso Villa.
Speaking with State House correspondents later, the NNPC chief executive assured Nigerians that there is no need to embark on panic buying as the price increase was not a consequence of a petrol shortage.
He claimed his company has a full month supply of petroleum products the ground and therefore hoarding was unnecessary.
The New Diplomat has earlier reported that the price of petrol in the NNPC fueling station has been increased to N617 leading other marketers to raise their pump price.
Explaining the cause of the new price regime, Mr. Kyari noted: “When you go to the market, you buy the product, you come to the market and sell it at its prevailing market price. It has nothing to do with supply. We don’t have supply issues. We have a robust supply. We have over 32 days of supply in the country. That’s not a problem.”
Asked to give details of the change in market forces that has led to this recent increase, the NNPC boss said, “I am assuring Nigerians that this is the best way to go forward so that we can adjust prices when market forces come into play.
I don’t have the details at this moment, but I know that our marketing wing acts just like every other company in this business. I know that a number of companies have imported petroleum products today.
So, many of them are online. I’m sure my colleague would confirm this. Market forces have started to play; people have started having confidence in the market. Private sector people are importing products, but there is no way they can recover their cost if they cannot take market reflective cost.”
Meanwhile Nigerians from all walks of life have criticized the sudden increase in petrol price in the face of a record high inflation that has impacted negatively on cost of living.
