The Federal Government opened up and declared on Wednesday that there was no plan to increase the pump price of petrol, at least during the Yuletide season amid the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
However, the government’s comments came amid a worsening and persistent fuel scarcity, which spread further on Wednesday across the country. Also, the cost of the commodity rose to as high as N285/litre in some filling stations in Abuja.
Oil marketers stated that the black market cost of petrol in Lagos had risen to about N450/litre, while it sold for more than that price in some other states.
But the government disclosed on Wednesday that there was fuel supply stock that could last the country for 34 days.
This came as a senior official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited confided in newsmen that subsidy on the PMS was becoming unbearable for the oil firm, amid product diversion.
As concerns around fuel price and supply heightened, the government declared that it had no plan to increase the price of petrol, describing comments on PMS price and its availability as speculations.
However, the government, through its Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, did not state any approved pump price for petrol, neither did it condemn the hike in PMS price by marketers nationwide.
