The Federal Government on Sunday said it has reduced the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol from N97 to N87.
The announcement was made at the presidential villa in Abuja by the minister for petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke who said the reduction became necessary because of the massive fall of crude oil on the international market.
The N10 price slash would take effect immediately.
“As you may be aware, there has been a lot of volatility in the oil market in the past few months and due to this the importation prices of our petroleum products have been impacted.
“Therefore, with the approval and directive of Mr. President and by virtue of Section 6 clause 1 of the Nigerian Petroleum Act, it is my responsibility as Minister of Petroleum Resources to hereby announce a reduction in the pump price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (Petrol) from the current N97 per litre pump price down to N87 per litre pump price, effective from twelve midnight Sunday, 18th of January 2015,” said Allison-Madueke.
The price slash came after the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) General Muhammadu Buhari and his party called for reduction in the pump price of petroleum products.
Buhari at the time that “The price of diesel which has been deregulated since 2009 still sells at the pump price of N150 and N170 per litre, the same pump price when the international benchmark per barrel of crude was over $100.
“Now that the international benchmark has dropped to $47.5 (USD) per barrel as at Monday, we ask: where is the deregulation and the relief which it ought to bring to local consumers of diesel?
“For the Nigerian consumers, unfortunately the collapse of crude oil price since October 2014 has not translated into any change in diesel, kerosene and PMS prices across the country.
“We challenge the federal government to reconcile the information on the website of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, indicating the maximum open market price of diesel per litre in December 2014 as being at N111.6 and the fact that the price has come down to less than $50 (USD) as at Monday.
“We want to posit that that the maximum indicative benchmark open consumers of diesel should pay is at a margin below N100 per litre. Therefore, Nigerians are being short-changed by about N50 to N70 on every litre of diesel sold by government.”
Follow Us