The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has attributed the increase in the price of household kerosene in the country to demand and supply pressures.
Accoriding to Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the NNPC group general manager, group public affairs division, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, the price of kerosene had since been deregulated.
“The point remains that the prices of the kerosene is deregulated,” he said.
“It is not as controlled with reference to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as Petrol, that is why we see the prices moving up and down.
“The important thing is that the trend you are seeing there had to do with supply and demand. The more the demand, the higher the price locally.’’
Ughamadu said the NNPC remained the sole importer of the product and had been augmenting it with the skeletal production from the refineries.
He reiterated the NNPC commitment to adequate supply of petroleum products for Nigerians.
“The Corporation is doing everything to ensure that we import more volumes of kerosene because, we believe that this is the energy source that the low income earners in the country use,’’ he said.
With the latest development, prices of kerosene have risen to between N400 and N500 per litre in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as most filling stations along the Kubwa Express Road, Dutse, and Zuba were rarely seen selling the product.
Most of the consumers in the area were seen buying products from the road side retailers.
Also at Dutse market, the price rose to N400 per litre while within Kubwa, it sold between N450 and N500 per litre.
Halima Saidu, a retailer at Kubwa village market, said she buys from filling stations at different prices.
“I sell at N450 per litre now but if I buy at higher price at the filling station, I will sell above that,’’ she said.
Meanwhile the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), had in its national house hold price watch in June said average price per litre paid by consumers for kerosene increased to N316.43 in June 2, from N315.91 in May. The NBS said the price of kerosene increased by 0.17 per cent month-on-month and 13.14 per cent year-on-year in the period under review.