The Presidency has stated that the federal government will not intervene in the ongoing fuel price controversy between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this to State House correspondents on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Onanuga emphasised that both entities were operating as independent companies in a deregulated market.
The presidential aide highlighted that under the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPC operates autonomously despite being jointly owned by federal, state, and local governments.
He added that the free market would ultimately benefit consumers, as other private marketers could import fuel and sell at competitive prices if they find NNPC or Dangote prices too high.
He said, “the PMS field, the PMS regime, has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPC should not forget it’s a limited liability company.
“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. They are operating, even if you go by the terms of Petroleum Industry Act.
“NNPC is on its own, even though it’s owned by the federal government, the state government and local councils and everything, but it’s operating as a limited liability company.
“You can see what the private market has said, that I think they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them. They will resolve to importing fuel because they clear market at the end of the day.
“Is the consumer who benefit if a price war starts, if NNPC fuel is too much, the public market can go to the market and bring in their own fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.
“So my answer is that, as far as the concern, government is not dabbling into this controversy.”
Instead of intervening in the price dispute, Onanuga said the Tinubu administration was focusing on promoting alternative energy solutions.
Onanuga revealed the government’s plan to encourage the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a cheaper alternative to petrol.
He noted that the price difference was significant, with CNG costing about N230 per liter equivalent compared to PMS at around N850 per liter.
According to him, the government aimed to have about a million vehicles running on CNG and plans to subsidise the conversion costs for private vehicle owners.
He said, “Government has a program which somebody mentioned earlier about CNG, that government wants to make sure that Nigerians have a choice.
“If you don’t want to use PMS, you can use CNG, and you can see what’s going on in many of our cities, Lagos, Ibadan, Benin and some other places where transporters are already embracing CNG.
“And the whole idea that CNG, the equivalent of gas to PMS is the gap, is too, is very, very wide. If you want to buy a liter of petrol, if they sell it, let’s say N850, what they’re going to get by the equivalent of CNG is about N230, and you can see the gap.
“Some of the transporters are already converting their vehicles to CNG, and the government has a plan to make sure that about a million of those vehicles run on CNG. The whole idea is that if they run on CNG, the cost of transportation will go down,” he added.
Additionally, he pointed out that the Tinubu administration was encouraging states to develop urban transportation systems to reduce overall transportation costs.
