The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has not usurped its powers in determining the price of petrol in the country.
Farouk Ahmed, who is the Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, spoke in the wake of insinuations that the NNPCL had taken over one of the agency’s key functions.
He told the Daily Trust yesterday that market forces are strictly responsible for determining the price of petrol, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.
He also said that interested parties in the oil and gas sector have every right to order, supply and sell petrol in Nigeria, saying part of the role of the NMDPRA is not to allow anyone to go overboard by exploiting the market or the final consumers.
Ahmed said since the scrapping of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and its replacement, the government or any of its agencies ceased to fix the prices of petroleum products, adding that determining the cost of products is expected to thrive under the forces of demand and supply.
