By Bisola Adeyemo
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The federal government has urged Nigerians to get ready to bear the pains of inflating petrol pump prices as crude oil rises above $60 per barrel.
Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources announced this on Tuesday, during an official launch of the Nigerian upstream cost optimization program.
Based on the analysis, the price of Brent crude oil hovered around $60 per barrel yesterday.
Sylva said a high cost of petrol will be unavoidable as he stressed on encouraging Nigerians to be ready to bear the pains of the impending new price regime.
Sylva said there is no provision of subsidy in the 2021 budget, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot continue bearing the cost of under-recovery.
He said while the federal government revenue has improved by the rise in crude oil price, it cannot be frittered on subsidy payment.
“Since we are optimizing everything, NNPC needs to also think about the optimization of product cost because as we all know oil prices are where they are today at $60,” Sylva said.
“As desirable as this is, this has serious consequences as well on product prices. So we want to take the pleasure and we should as a country be ready to take the pain.
“Today the NNPC is taking a big hit from this. We all know that there is no provision in the budget for subsidy.
“So, somewhere down the line, I believe that the NNPC cannot continue to take this blow. There is no way because there is no provision for it.”
“As a country, let us take the benefits of the higher crude oil prices and I hope we will also be ready to take a little pain on the side of higher product prices.”
As of yesterday in many filling stations, a liter of fuel petrol is being sold at a range of N160-N165 per liter band however, this price was set four months ago when crude oil traded just above $43 per barrel.
