The Federal Government is currently not subsidising premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said.
According to Kachikwu, the development was due to the current market realities in the international prices of crude oil.
The minister, who disclosed this on Sunday, also stated that the situation would likely continue for as long as the fall in crude oil prices persist, adding that he was rather interested in keeping the supply of petrol efficient and less expensive than on dwell on subsidy removal.
He explained that the Federal Government had not deregulated the downstream petroleum sector which would have led to the removal of subsidy on petrol.
Kachikwu noted that the government was currently modulating the pump price of petrol to ensure that the supply of the product was in line with trends in the market.
He said, “Let me say that we are expending too much energy on semantics. There are two critical issues here, one is should the Federal Government continue to fund the gap that we see? This huge N1tn, and I think everybody is on the same page that as much as it is, we need to get out of it.
“Where we have a disagreement is if we get out of it, should we sell products at certain price or should you let free markets to roll in so that you can skyrocket prices? Today, there is no subsidy, we are selling products at N87, in January, we will look at what the trend is, we will announce prices, if that is less than N87, we will announce it and if it is more than that, we will have to announce it.
“My concentration right now is to make sure that the refineries are working, the more they work, the higher the chances that I will be closer to the sort of pricing we are comfortable with than when they are not working, that is why you see me putting a lot of energy in going around the refineries.”
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