President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gilly-Harry has urged Nigerians to prepare for a higher price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in days to come, saying that prices would henceforth be sold at the current market prices.
Gilly-Harry revealed this on Tuesday while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Morning Brief.
According to him, current prices of petrol at around ₦600 per litre may no longer be possible, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited battles to keep the country wet with products.
His stance comes as the NNPCL recently agreed to be in debt of over $60bn to PMS suppliers.
Petrol currently sells for around ₦950 and above ₦1000 per litre in filling stations not owned by the NNPCL due to the scarcity.
“We have been shouting that they (NNPC) has been selling products at ₦590 per litre. Who is bleeding? Somebody is bleeding and we need to tell what exactly is going on, we cannot play politics with everything.
When asked whether Nigerians should prepare for a price hike, he said “For me, what I will say is to encourage Nigerians to buy petroleum products at the price that the market forces will determine. However, we are fully aware that fuel subsidies of different kinds of products across the world, and oil and gas are a natural blessing for Nigerians.
And naturally, we are expecting a subsidy to be paid for that. And I will have to look at the advantages of subsidising just PMS when we have health challenges and other challenges.
He also spoke on the NNPCL debt to oil suppliers.
Credit: channelstv.com
