FG has no hands in NNPCL, Dangote petrol pricing dispute

The Federal Government has opted not to intervene in the petrol pricing dispute between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Dangote Refinery.

President Tinubu’s Special Adviser, Bayo Onanuga, stated that both parties are free to set their own market prices due to the deregulation of the petroleum market.

Onanuga explained that this will benefit Nigerian consumers, as competitive alternatives and pricing wars tend to drive prices down. The government will not interfere in the dispute, allowing market forces to dictate prices.

He said: “The PMS price regime has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPCL you should not forget is a limited liability company.

“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. Even if you go by the terms of the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPCL is on its own. Even though it’s owned by the Federal Government, the state government and local councils and everything, it is operating as a limited liability company.

“You can see that the private marketers have said that they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them, and they may resort to importing fuel.

“It is the consumers 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 government is not dabbling into this controversy. Dangote is running a private company working on his own, and NNPC is a limited liability company that has the right to fix the price of its own product.”