Government considers reducing crude oil price

ayodele johnson

February 19, 2016 4:37 AM

The rate of depreciation of the naira has never reached its current heights, happening almost everyday

Naira devalues further against dollar at N372 to $1

The continued fall in crude oil price may lead to a further cut in the pump price of petrol by the Federal Government any time soon, the outgoing Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, has said.

The agency had late December 2015 stated that the pricing template for petroleum products would be reviewed occasionally to reflect fluctuations in the price of crude oil in the international market.

READ: Currency depreciates further to 372/dollar

“As of February 3, 2016, the estimate in that account, because we are verifying based on what was imported, is just a small amount of about N2.6bn. But this is just the beginning, because some of them were just arriving in December; that is why the subsidy over-recovery is low.

“The fact is that whatever money that will be put into that account, one day, which is our hope that the price of crude oil will go up, there will be more revenue inflow to the Federation Account. The oil sector will benefit. That excess, before you go to the government for any intervention, you go to that account and pull some money and compensate.”

The rate of depreciation of the naira has never reached its current heights, happening almost everyday.

ayodele johnson