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DPR gets task force on petrol pricing

By on August 1, 2015

Following the continued sale of petrol above the stipulated pump price by some marketers, the Department of Petroleum Resources has said it will engage law enforcement agencies like the police, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to stop them.

The agency said it had set up a special task force on the supervision and monitoring of product sale from depots, with powers to undertake the sale of products from the depots.

The task force, it noted, would liaise with the police, PPMC and the PPPRA.

The department said in a statement on Thursday that its action resulted from a meeting held with all stakeholders in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry a day earlier.

The meeting, it noted, was summoned to convey the government’s displeasure at the illegal sale of petrol above the stipulated pump price of N87 per litre and the long queues of motorists at filling stations.

It said, “Preliminary investigations revealed that the prevailing hike in retail prices of petrol and kerosene across the country is as a result of the unscrupulous activities of some depot owners and major marketers, who are engaged in selling petrol and kerosene to various retailers at prices higher than the official ex-depot prices of N77.66 and N34.51, respectively.

“In order to check the unprincipled activities of these depot owners and major marketers in this regard and to prevent the further imposition of hardship on the general public, the DPR is resolved to take immediate steps to directly supervise the sale of the products from these affected depots in order to ensure that appropriate pricing is strictly adhered to.”

According to the agency, the process will involve the immediate suspension of direct sale of petrol and kerosene to the affected depot owners and major marketers, of which the special task force will issue directives and guidelines to the general public on the procedure for the enforcement of the supervised sales throughout the period of the exercise until normalcy returns to the sector.

 

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