The corporation made this announcement on Thursday in Abuja and stated that market forces would decide product prices in a statement signed by Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer.
This comes after the Dangote Refinery started refining petrol earlier in the week.
Soneye cited Adedapo Segun, NNPCL’s Executive Vice President of Downstream, NNPC Ltd., as saying that the downstream industry had undergone complete deregulation and that the business would no longer set prices.
His reasoning dispels rumors that NNPCL would keep setting pricing even after it was announced that the downstream industry had been deregulated.
Reports that NNPCL will be the only company lifting petrol from the Dangote refinery added fuel to the rumors.
As per the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), unrestricted free market forces govern the prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has declared that forex illiquidity has been a noteworthy factor impacting the fluctuations in PMS prices.
NNPCL stated that the current gasoline shortage is anticipated to “subside in a few days as more stations recalibrate and begin selling PMS,” citing Segun in their explanation.
He stated that unrestrained free market forces decided petroleum pricing, as stipulated by Section 205 of the PIA, which founded NNPC Ltd.
