Atiku plans domestic crude pricing to cut fuel cost — Amaechi

Rotimi Amaechi, the African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate, says the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will introduce a production subsidy and domestic crude pricing regime if elected.

Amaechi disclosed this at the ADC town hall meeting in Edo State, while explaining the party’s proposed approach to reducing the cost of petroleum products.

He said the proposed subsidy would be targeted at refineries operating in Nigeria, stressing that companies without refineries in the country would not benefit from the arrangement.

Amaechi said the policy would not require direct government payment of the subsidy.

He explained that the government would instead establish a pricing policy that would allow crude oil to be sold to domestic refiners at a price lower than the international market rate.

According to him, the arrangement would involve selling crude oil to local refiners such as the Dangote refinery at a discounted domestic price.

Amaechi illustrated the proposal with a hypothetical example.

He said, “The price at which I sell crude on the international market will be different from the Nigerian market. We will do domestic pricing.

“If I sell crude at N15,000 on the international market, in Nigeria, I will sell to Dangote at N10,000.

“The difference will be N5,000. I will then sit with Dangote and tell him to give me a subsidy of N5,000.

“Once that happens, the price of fuel will come down.”

The former Minister of Transportation said the proposed policy was intended to encourage domestic refining while reducing the cost of petrol for consumers.

Amaechi’s proposal comes amid continuing debate over fuel pricing, domestic refining capacity and the impact of crude oil costs on petroleum products in Nigeria.

He, however, did not provide further details at the meeting on the proposed framework, including how the domestic crude price would be determined or how the subsidy arrangement would be enforced.