The Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), generally known as petrol, has seen a price increase, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd.

Tuesday, shortly after a personal meeting with the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, announced the rise to State House Correspondents.

THEWILL previously reported that the NNPC had hiked the price of petrol at the pump in Abuja and its surroundings on Tuesday to N617.

Kyari clarified that the rise was consistent with the state of the market. He denied claims that there was a shortage of the good in the nation, which would explain the price increase.

He said, “I don’t have the details at this moment. You know we have the marketing wing of the company, they adjust prices depending on the market realities.

“And this is the meaning of making sure that the market regulates itself so that prices will go up and sometimes they will come down also. This is really what we are seeing in reality; this is how the market works.

“There is no supply issue completely. When you go to the market, you buy the product; you come to the market and sell it at the prevailing market price. There is nothing to do with supply; we don’t have supply issues.

“There is robust supply. We have over 32 days of supply in the country; that’s not a problem. What I know is that the market forces will regulate the market. Prices will go down sometimes and sometimes, they will go up but there will be stability of supply, and I am also assuring Nigerians that this is the best way to go forward so that we can adjust prices when the market comes.

“I know that a number of companies have imported petroleum pms. So, many of them are on line. Market forces have started to play. People have confidence in the market and private sector people are now importing products but there is no way they can recover their cost if they cannot take market reflective cost.”

Farouk Ahmed, the chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), asserted that the organisation had no business deciding how much gasoline should cost.

“As a regulator, you know I told you back in May, we are not going to be setting prices, the market will determine itself and as you saw back in early June when prices came out, it was based on the cost of importation plus other logistics of distribution and of course, the profit margin by the importer.

“This market is deregulated, it’s open to all participants. As mentioned also yesterday (Monday) when I was in Lagos, we have about 56 marketing companies that have applied for and obtained licenses to import.

“Out of those, 10 of them have indicated to supply within the third quarter, which is July, August and September. And out of those already, we received some cargo from some of these Marketers.

“Prudent Energy, AYM Shafa and Emadeb Cargo are arriving tomorrow (Wednesday). So, this is just an encouragement to see that the market is liberated and everyone is free to import so long as you are working within the framework, especially in terms of quality.

“But the pricing, as a regulator, we are not going to put a cap on the price because we are not part of those importing. We are not a marketing company, we are just a regulator.

“So, when you say market forces are working, basically what it means is that you can see the price of crude oil going up, a couple of weeks ago recovering around 70 dollars per barrel now it’s around 80 dollars per barrel,” he said.