Abuja, Jan. 17, 2025 – Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, says petrol prices in Nigeria are now determined by crude oil prices abroad.
The minister said this at a stakeholders’ forum organised by his ministry in Abuja on Thursday.
He stressed that prices of petrol prices were no longer fixed by the federal government, but by prices of crude oil abroad.
Lokpobiri said the federal government was no longer interested in fixing prices of petrol, but more concerned about the quality and availability of the products.
“What the government is particularly interested in is the quality.
“If we buy 10 litres of petrol, let it be that we are not shortchanged by the petrol pump price, that is where we have issues.
“The essence of deregulation is for price to find its level.
“Before now, you were hearing negative news about petrol subsidy, but today, there is no news about petrol subsidy because the sector is completely deregulated.
“As the international oil price goes up, the petrol price may go up. As the oil price comes down, the price may come down.
“And once there is competition, people have a choice of petrol stations to buy petrol, and this is why you cannot see any queues, which is the real essence of deregulation.”
Lokpobiri reiterated the federal government’s commitment to ensuring quality and availability of petroleum products across the country.
