The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari has told Nigerians not to panic about the rising prices of petrol across the country.
Kyari said on Thursday that competition among major players in the oil sector would force down the price of petrol as against the upward trends that have caused panic in the country.
Speaking on Thursday in an interview on Arise TV’s Morning Show, Kyari said the removal of subsidy would allow new entrants into the market, a move he said, would aid competition and phased out monopoly.
This, he said, would ensure healthy competition which would ultimately lead to a downward review of pump prices of petroleum across the country.
“The beauty of this (subsidy removal) is that there will be new entrants (into the market) because oil marketing companies’ reluctance to come into the market all along is the very fact of the subsidy regime that is in place,” he said.
It could be noted that queues returned to fuel stations across the country following the recent increase in the petrol pump price occasioned by the discontinuance of petroleum subsidy.
On Wednesday morning, the NNPC said it had adjusted the pump price of petrol to reflect market realities, but several independent retail outlets sold the product between N600 and N800 in major cities across the country.
Talks between the Federal Government and organised labour over the removal of fuel subsidy ended in a deadlock on Wednesday as they failed to reach a consensus following the hike in petrol pump prices by oil marketers.
