Petrol Price Negotiation Still Ongoing, Says NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday said state governors do not run the affairs of the corporation, stressing that negotiation to determine a new pump price of petrol was still ongoing between the organised labour and the Federal Government.

It added that there was no official announcement of any price hike for the product.

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was yesterday quoted as saying that there was a recommendation from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum that petrol should sell for between N380 to N408 per litre.

The recommendation was a request for the complete removal of the subsidy on petrol.

With the removal, the product would be at the mercy of demand and supply.

But the NNPC, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, told The Nation on phone that it was not the responsibility of state governors to run the corporation.

“I can’t react to that. You know how the thing runs: it is not the state governments that will determine what we do in our Corporation. It is a government (Federal) thing.

“And as far as I am concerned, negotiation is ongoing; so when it is communicated to the appropriate quarters. That is when we will respond. For now we don’t have any official communication,” he said during a telephone interview.

He assured the general public that the recommendations of N408 per litre would not lead to any scarcity of petrol.

According to him, NNPC had petrol stock sufficiency of 40 days.

“Our plan is always to have over 40 days of sufficiency” he said, stressing that fuel was available in abundance.