Mele Kyari, the managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC Ltd), says the pump price of per liter of petrol could be as high as N410, had government not subsidized it.
He said this while keynoting the ‘Legislative Transparency and Accountability Summit’, organised by the House of Reps Anti-Corruption Committee, themed, Enhancing Transparency & Accountability in the Oil & Gas Sector.” House of Representatives, in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said, “It is not possible for you to buy fuel at N170 when your actual cost is thrice that value. For instance, today, when PMS comes into this country, we transfer to marketers at N113 per litre for us to ensure N165 at the pump, so you must sell at N113 to them to be able to deliver at N165.
“That means whatever the cost, anything after that value, that is subsidy. Somebody has to pay for it. Everyone knows the price of PMS around the world. There is nowhere today that you can land a litre of PMS to the pumps at the N445 exchange rate, it is not possible.”
“In some places, you are subsidizing up to N290 on every litre. With this regime, it is impossible for you to avoid all the wrong things that are happening. Round tripping, cross-border smuggling, document forgery-anywhere you have arbitrage, you will have these issues.”
Kyari, equally, says that the corporation’s decision to hire private security contractors to guard oil installations is paying off.
