Financial Energy Review
by Musa Ibrahim………..
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has said that the down stream sector of the oil and gas industry is now fully deregulated.
However, he said that government would continue to intervene in determining the pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, to safeguard consumers of the commodity from being exploited by oil marketers.
The minister told newsmen that the deregulation came into effect March 19, 2020. Sylva disclosed that the decision of the government to continue to intervene in fixing fuel price was as a result of the ugly experiences the government was having with oil marketers, who had deliberately refused to bring down the cost of diesel and other petroleum products whose landing costs had reduced.
He complained that despite the slash in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, the prices of food items and other commodity were yet to come down, but were instead going up, noting, however, that if the prices were increased by a little margin, prices of food items would have skyrocketed.
“Deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector was approved on the 19th of March. What was announced on that day was already deregulation, However, PMS and kerosene are strategic to the country, hence, we cannot allow their prices to be determined wholly by marketers. Consumers had to be protected. This is what obtains globally” he said.
Sylva further stated that the Federal Government was kick-starting the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) penetration policy, June ending, hopefully, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to postpone the commencement twice, in April and May 2020.
In the LPG policy, he said the government was planning to set up 32,000 micro-distribution centres (MDC) for LPG, also known as cooking gas, across the country, and would see the engagement of 5,000 youths across the country, while the existing illegal roadside LPG dealers would also be inculcated in the programme.
He said LPG penetration programme will create a lot of job in the country and would encourage more Nigerians to use LPG.
Award of acreages
Sylva further stated that the petroleum ministry had gotten approval from the Presidency for the award of marginal oilfields, which would certainly be conducted this year; while he noted that on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) the Federal Government would conduct a major oil bid rounds, especially after issues surrounding the fiscals and other issues had been addressed
