‘Petrol to sell for N85 per litre from Jan 1’ .

‘Petrol to sell for N85 per litre from Jan 1’
.
The Federal government is set to
reduce the pump price of petrol to about 85 or 86
naira per litre.
Minister of State for Petroleum , Dr Ibe Kachikwu
who disclosed this during a tour of the Port Harcourt
refinery on Christmas Day expressed hope that the
new price regime may come on stream January next
year.
.
He said efforts were on to get the refinery to achieve
60 percent production capacity and to supply about
11 million liters of petrol daily.
.
“If you look at the new PPPRA template that we
developed and which I just signed off two days ago,
when it is announced you will find out that for now
, and I use the emphatic word of the President for
now, the price of the refined product will actually be
lower than 87 naira, It will be 85. We will probably
announce that in January if the prices hold.
.
“like I said, we have done a modulation calculation
and it is showing us below N87. I imagine that if
PPPRA publishes it today, it will become effective
immediately. But the 1st of January that is when we
are looking at.”
.
“What that does for you is that its modulating. If it
goes up you move up, if it comes down you come
down. So we take away the fact of having to go find
funds to pay for these subsidies that we cannot
afford.
“More importantly we try to be as close to the pump
price that we have now as possible,” he said.
.
Kachikwu who is also the Group Managing Director,
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC said
government had resolved to scrap oil subsidy
because of alleged fraud around it.
“So for the first time people will understand that the
pricing modulation I was talking about is not a
gimmick. It is for real. The objective is that we
cannot afford to continue to subsidize .We can’t even
understand where those subsidies were going to.
There is a lot of fraud elements in it so we need to
cut that of.
.
The second is the earning capacity of the Federal
Government is deteriorating by the day with lower
prices of crude “, he said.
He also said there was improvement in security of
pipelines with the engagement of private contractors
by the federal government.