Kyari, NNPCL need to be investigated over secrecy around landing cost of petrol, PDP chief says

Nigerians have a right to know the precise landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, according to Adetokunbo Pearse, a member of the People Democratic Party’s (PDP) National Presidential Campaign Council.

Pearse stated this on Monday said while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that Mele Kyari, the managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), should be thoroughly investigated about the variation in landing costs.

“The way you solve a problem is to go to the source. Let the president 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 said.

He noted that switching back to the NNPCL will raise the cost of petroleum imports at the port.

“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 N50 per litre, now it’s about N150 per litre.”

In contrast to the NNPCL boss’ statement, the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Support Group’s Lagos State Coordinator believes that the construction of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the upkeep of the regional refineries will lower the product’s landing cost.

“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.

“Of course, 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,” he argued.

As of September 2022, the NNPCL in a statement noted that PMS will cost consumers N462 per litre without the Federal Government’s subsidy.

It added 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.