The Minister for State of Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, has given reasons of justification for an increase in the pump price of fuel, stating that there are countries that pay higher for fuel.
In a conversation at the government’s accountability series titled “PMB administration scorecard 2015-2023”, Sylva disclosed he would not mind purchasing fuel at N300 per liter.
During his presentation, Sylva expressed that other countries sell fuel at higher prices than Nigeria, arguing that N300 per liter is not an excessive price.
“Frankly, if you ask me I will say I won’t feel bad (buying fuel for N300) knowing the actual situation. And if you compare Nigeria to other countries, then you will also understand. Then you convert the N300 to other currencies, you will probably understand,” he said.
“A lot of you travel to the United Kingdom and the United States. How much do you buy petroleum products? Even in Saudi Arabia and in the Arab countries that produce crude oil, convert to naira, you will find out that we are not doing too badly,” he added.
Sylva further stated, due to recent scarcity, several fuel stations have independently raised pump prices, with marketers selling above the approved government price of N170 per liter.
The Petroleum Minister, said if the cost of petroleum products were market-driven, investors would not continue to shy away from investing in the downstream oil sector.
He aforementioned that investors will not come to the country under the subsidy regime, but said they would be willing to put their money into the sector when the market is free.
“Under a subsidized regime, who is going to invest? If you build a refinery, how is your refinery going to make a profit under a subsidized regime? But if you have a market-driven situation, you’ll see that a lot of investors will come,” he said.
“The more refineries we have, this problem of access to petroleum products will be a thing of the past.”
“The management of the supply situation under this subsidy regime is not easy. We must all agree [that] so much money is being burnt on our cars. But somehow we have to seek funds in order to keep the country wet,” he said.
“Sometimes, if you really think deeply, you begin to wonder what magic they are doing to even be able to keep this country wet, considering that you buy something, let’s say for N10 and you are to sell it at a loss.
“And then you are expected to go back and buy the same thing and come back and sell at a loss so that at every point in time you are looking for more money to continue to buy it because you are mandated to sell it at a loss. If you are a businessman, look at it from that perspective, that you are in a business where you are mandated to sell at a loss to the population” He concluded.