The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, on Wednesday announced that the oil firm saved over $1bn of the cost that would have been built in on the top of petroleum products imports into Nigeria.
NNPC is the country’s sole importer of petrol for more than three years running and it currently subsidises the commodity, dispensing it to marketers at a subsidised rate, while dealers sell at between N162/litre to N165/litre. Speaking during a live television programme monitored by our correspondent in Abuja, Kyari said NNPC was able to get petrol at the pumps at about N256/litre, whereas the cost of the commodity would have been about N290/litre.
He explained that since the cost of diesel was currently N280/litre, the price of petrol would have been N10 higher than diesel price, but that NNPC had been able to bring it into Nigeria at about N256/litre.
The corporation’s boss, however, noted that despite the fact that NNPC was bringing in the commodity at the N256/litre rate, it had maintained the cost to marketers at about N160/litre. He said the cost of petrol would remain at the current rate until the ongoing engagements with labour on the matter were concluded.
