Subsidy Removal: Petrol Price Could Rise to N1,000 per Litre, DPR Alerts Nigerians
- To remove subsidy, Nigeria needs an alternative fuel else the people will be plunged into more hardship
- DPR director, Sarki Auwalu, said Nigerians may have to pay as high as N1000 per litre of petrol when fuel subsidy ends
- Auwalu added that going for alternative fuel also comes with its own expenses as converting one vehicle from running on petrol or diesel to gas could cost $400
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Lagos, Nigeria - The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has issued a warning that when the petrol subsidy regime comes to an end, Nigerians may have to spend as much as N1000 per litre for the product if an alternative energy source is not provided.
This was disclosed by the DPR director, Sarki Auwalu, at the Second Quarter, 2021 Business Dinner of Petroleum Club Lagos.
In a statement seen by Legit.ng on the DPR website, Auwalu, who was responding to questions and comments generated by a paper he delivered, said Nigeria was spending so much on petrol subsidy.
Source: Facebook
According to him, getting rid of the subsidy will require making alternative fuel available to the people and failure to do so will lead to the people paying higher prices for petrol.
Alternative fuel is the way
The DPR director reiterated that when there is no more subsidy and the alternative energy or autogas gas policy has become fully operational, Nigerians could be paying as high as N1,000 for one litre of petrol.
Auwalu noted that the alternative fuel regime also comes with its own cost as nothing less than $400 could be spent on converting one vehicle from running on petrol or diesel to running on either Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
Nigeria's membership of OPEC threatened
Auwalu has warned that Nigeria's membership of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may be in threat if the rise in its local refining capacity as seen in the coming on stream of a number of refineries in the country does not correspond with the increase in the oil production volume.
See the full statement posted on the DPR Facebook page below:
What must be done to keep petrol at N162 per litre
In an earlier report by Legit.ng, the group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, said smuggling of petroleum has to stop to avoid the rising subsidy payments that have kept the country in a state of bleeding.
He said Nigeria cannot afford the payment of subsidy with the high rate of daily consumption being recorded which is due to the illegal export of petrol through the nation's borders.
According to him, the menace of smuggling has to stop for the government to maintain the current N162 per litre.
Source: Legit.ng
