Petrol Price War; Why Tinubu won’t interfere in Dangote, NNPC dispute — Presidency
The Federal Government has distanced itself from the ongoing pricing conflict between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Dangote Refinery, asserting that both parties are free to set their own market prices for consumers.
This stance was articulated on Wednesday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu, during a briefing with State House correspondents in Abuja.
Onanuga explained that the deregulation of the petroleum market grants NNPCL and Dangote the autonomy to operate based on economic forces and establish their prices for petrol, or Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
He emphasised that this competitive environment is expected to benefit Nigerian consumers, as price competition typically leads to lower costs.
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.
