PPPRA to sanction oil marketers defying price display directive

*An NNPC Retail signage with prices of petroleum products on display.

Ike Amos

Abuja — The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Saturday, threatened to sanction petroleum marketers who fail to display prices of petroleum products at their retail outlets.

In a statement in Abuja, General Manager, Corporate Services of the PPPRA, Mr. Apollo Kimchi, said the PPPRA decided to begin strict enforcement of this law to check sharp practices among petroleum marketers.

He explained that the PPPRA had embarked on a series of monitoring activities to enable it gauge the market response to supply dynamics with a view to effecting policies that will improve supply efficiency.

He emphasised that these monitoring exercise affords the PPPRA the opportunity to ascertain first-hand the activities at the end of the value chain in the petroleum downstream sub-sector.

He also stated that during the exercise it observed that price competition amongst marketers was intensifying with some selling at N143 per litre while others sold for N145 per litre.

According to Kimchi, marketers of petroleum products must display prices of products in their retail outlets even at night or face sanctions.

He further explained that the Agency was focused on ensuring that competition among marketers does not lead to under-dispensing where marketers would hide under the guise of low price to under-dispense products to unsuspecting customers.

He said, “All these discoveries will be fed into policy direction and will also reflect in our collaboration with relevant authorities to know areas that need strengthening and the signs to look out for.

“Information gathered during the monitoring exercise authenticates the findings made public few weeks ago that the penetration of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is actually becoming very popular amongst Nigerians especially for domestic cooking purposes. This has also led to the decrease in the consumption of Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK.

“The PPPRA is collaborating with DPR to ensure that erring petrol stations get sanctioned. The PPPRA appeals to all stakeholders to ensure they operate within the law and stipulated guidelines in order to avoid sanctions.”