Fuel Hikes: Why government should investigate NNPCL, Kyari over petrol landing cost –Ex-PCC Chieftain

*President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been asked to interrogate the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and Mele Kyari, GCEO of the state oil firm, for Nigerians to know what the exact landing cost is to determine how much marketers should sell oil towards strengthening the economy

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

As several Nigerian consumers have advocated the way to resolve the lingering fuel price hikes is to tackle it “from the source”, Dr. Adetokunbo Pearse, a member of the People Democratic Party’s National Presidential Campaign Council (PCC),  has also stated that consumers have a right to know the “actual landing cost” of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.

Dr. Pearse, who said this while featuring onna Channels TV programme Monday, August 14, 2023, advocated a thorough investigation of Malam Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), over the fluctuation of landing cost of fuel in the West African economy.

The party chieftain stated: “The way you solve a problem is to go to the source.

“Let the President (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) go and interrogate NNPCL and let us find out – announce to the country what the landing cost is so that we know exactly what we can make, and how much we can sell oil that will not cripple the economy. That’s what we need to do.”

He also lamented that going back to the NNPC would affect the landing cost of imported fuel.

Pearse said: “When you go to the NNPCL, you find out that the landing cost is so low, the price that is given. “The landing cost at one point was 50 Naira per litre, now it’s about 150 per litre.”

According to him, the emergence of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the repair of the local refineries ought to reduce the landing cost of the product in contrast to the NNPCL GCEO’s comment on the varied petrol pump prices in the Nigerian economy.

“One of the reasons I said we need to go to NNPCL is this: Kyari said on this Channels TV that even when Dangote oil comes fully on board, the price of pump fuel will not reduce – even with the production of oil in Port Harcourt and elsewhere.

“That man needs to be investigated,” he noted.

He further contended “if you refine your oil here, the man is already telling us that even when it is refined here, it is still not going to go down.

“And you and I know that if we have our own refineries and we are refining the product here, the price should be more competitive.”

It is noted the NNPCL in a statement noted as if September 2022, that petrol would cost consumers N462 per litre without the Federal Government’s subsidy.

The Company also stated that the “rising crude oil prices and PMS supply costs above PPPRA (now NMDPRA) cap had forced oil marketing companies’ (OMCs) withdrawal from PMS import since the fourth quarter of 2017.