The federal government has warned depot owners to desist from selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) above the ex-depot price approved by the government or face severe sanctions, Leadership reports.
Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva who gave this warning yesterday also stressed that the federal government was working around the clock to bring the situation to an end.
He attributed the resurgence of the fuel queues to the geopolitical tensions between Russian and Ukraine which led to a sudden spike in crude oil prices thereby affecting its byproducts. “As you all know, when the price of Crude oil rises to that level, it affects the derivate of crude oil so the price of diesel also went up”, he said.
According to him, the Petroleum trucks which ran on diesel were heavily impacted as they were finding it difficult to transport PMS with the current cost of diesel.
He called on depot owners and marketers to avoid taking undue advantage of the unfortunate situation to increase the ex-depot price.
The minister assured Nigerians that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd and the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority were working very hard to bring the situation under control.
“I thought to come and inform you that we are not resting on our oars. We share the pains of Nigerians and we want to do everything to ensure that this problem is resolved as quickly as possible,” he averred.
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