The Federal Government is no more going to be releasing guiding price bands for the sale of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at filling stations.
It disclosed this in Abuja through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency on Tuesday.
The agency also added that based on this, the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector had been fully deregulated.
Responding to questions from journalists during a briefing at the headquarters of PPPRA, the agency’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, stated that going forward, PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.
He, however, noted that the role of the agency would be to ensure that oil marketers do not profiteer, as every petrol dealer was, henceforth free to source for product and fix their price.
“This, however, must be in accordance with our code of conduct because as a regulator, it is our duty to protect the consumer and operators must abide by our codes,” Saidu stated.
The PPPRA boss, who was represented by the agency’s General Manager, Administration and Human Resources, Victor Shidok, also confirmed Sunday PUNCH’s report that oil marketers were not currently importing petrol because of the scarcity of foreign exchange.