DPR denies saying subsidy removal will spike fuel price

Uthman Salami

The Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR) has denied saying that pump price of Petrol would rise to N1,000 a litre if subsidy is removed.

The spokesman of the Agency, Paul Osu, denied an online publication which made that misreported the scenario created by the Director of the DPR, Auwalu Sarki.

According to him, “We wish to state that the headline of the publication is misleading as the comments of the Director/CEO DPR was clearly taken out of context.

“The Director/CEO specifically created a scenario of price instability of pms based on current dollar to naira differentials to the effect that if Nigeria continues to rely on the importation of pms without creating alternative energy sources like CNG, LNG, AUTOGAS etc which will provide price buffers for consumers and ultimately crash the price of pms, then the product will be subject to prevailing market forces.”

Osu explained that “The Director further reemphasized that the strategy for alternative energy sources is a cardinal program of the government which has led to the declarationbof the Decade of Gas (DoG) with the objective to migrate the Nigerian economy to a gas based economy by 2030.”

He estated commitment of the Agency to enable businesses and create opportunities through its downstream focus on Quality, Quantity, Integrity and safety (QQIS).