ABUJA, Nigeria — The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, announced on Friday, June 2, 2023, that it will cease the practice of fixing prices or providing templates for Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol.
Instead, market forces will guide prices in the now deregulated market.
Farouk Ahmed, the Authority Chief Executive, made the statement during a news conference.
“As far as we are concerned in the NMDPRA, this is not like before when the PPPRA fixes the price; in a deregulated market, it is the market force that dictates the price,” he said.
While the market will now be open for all potential importers meeting the regulatory requirements, Ahmed emphasized that the role of the NMDPRA will continue to be focused on regulation, quality control, and licensing.
According to Ahmed, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) will now set the price of the petrol it imports but will not take over the responsibilities of the authority.
He said, “In the case of the NNPC, the organisation is the sole importer at this point. We told the NNPC to recover its costs because they know how much it cost them to import the product and sell it.”
Ahmed also announced the official abolition of petroleum equalisation and the national transport allowance by the Federal Government.
The NMDPRA, the federal government, and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, will aggressively monitor activities in the downstream sector to prevent profiteering by petroleum marketers.
Furthermore, marketers now have the freedom to source their foreign exchange anywhere globally to import petroleum products and recover their costs without any impediments.
