Oil and Gas

Fuel Price: Federal Government to help marketers access forex for easy imports

Published

3 years ago

2020/11/17

The Federal Government will make the dollar accessible to oil marketers in order to make the importation of petrol into Nigeria competitive and help reduce the increasing cost of petrol.

The National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okonkwo, informed journalists on Monday that petroleum product dealers would start importing petrol soon.

According to him, this was based on the meeting which oil marketers had with the government last week.

He said, “Last week we got some assurance from the Ministry of Finance on how to help us access the dollar at the same rate with NNPC because the market is now open.

“Now if we get that, we have got people who are ready to bring in this product, but their challenge is how they can get the dollar. So, if by the time we finish with government and sort this out, a lot of marketers are ready to bring in products.”

“I know that by the time that happens, it will create healthy competition where if we can’t get product from the Singapore market, we will get from Russia or Europe. It will no more be a one-man show like it is right now.” Okonkwo said.

According to him, once marketers begin to import petrol, prices at filling stations would drop.

NewsWireNGR recalls that on Friday, the NNPC, through its Pipelines Products Marketing Company, increased the ex-depot price of petrol from N147 per litre to N155.17 per litre, a development that shot the cost of the product at filling stations to between N168 and N170 per litre.