PEF awaits workable framework to equalise price of cooking gas

• – urges Marketers to transport PMS by rail

By Etuka Sunday

The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management Board) on Sunday disclosed that plans are being made to equalise the price of liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) in the country.

This, it said, would encourage availability, affordability, accessibility, usage and  help add value to the economy; just as it urged oil marketers to start moving Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol by rail.

Speaking at a Media Parley in Abuja,  the Executive Secretary, PEF,  Ahmed Bobboi said, the agency awaits a  workable framework to equalise price of cooking gas.

Bobboi said PEF(MB) was considering the plan because of the huge success recorded in the over 45 years of petrol price equalisation.

The PEF boss said, “We are trying to introduce the bridging scheme to gas because government has declared this year till 2030 as a decade of gas.

“And we say if this (petrol price equalisation) is working for the economy for over 45 years now effectively, if we can extend the practice to gas we believe that it will add value to the economy in so many ways in the value chain.

“It will help in getting the consumers in many areas to accept the usage of gas and abandon the age-long use of firewood and its attendant problems and health hazards and cut down on deforestation.

“It will also make the product available because we have huge gas reserves. It will make gas affordable to the people, because if you can incentivise the marketer through his transportation, he will take it to the last mile”.

He explained that the consumer would also be incentivised because the marketers would bring down their prices and the product would be affordable and accessible to the consumers.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that the agency  was working on

how to get oil marketers to start moving products by rail.

“We are looking at the possibility of getting marketers to transport their products by rail because government is reviving many of the critical rail lines.

“And we think that if marketers will patronise the railway system, that will reduce the pressure on the roads and increase the turn-around volume because one rail journey will take 20 or more wagons of product.

“And if you can do that, it saves a lot of cost and reduces pressure on the roads. Most state governments are complaining that heavy duty vehicles are destroying their roads. It will also reduce the cost of road maintenance for government”, he said.

Bobboi also explained why there was delay in the implementation of the N9.11 kobo recently agreed as petrol price bridging rate for tanker drivers, saying that it was put on hold following the opposition by labour that its implementation would lead to a hike in petrol price.

According to him, the labour union demanded that the government should put in place measures that would reduce the hardship which the adjustment from N7.20k to N9.11k would have on the masses.

He said, the government was still looking at measures to cushion the effect of the increase, adding that this had made the approval for the new rate to be put on hold.

The PEF(MB) boss also emphasised that the agency would not pay the bridging claim of any market who dispense petrol above the regulated N165/litre price, adding that dealers had been made to understand this.

PEF(MB) is an agency of the Federal Government under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources with the main mandate to ensure uniform prices for petroleum products across the country.

The fund also ensures the reimbursement of petroleum companies on any losses in Nigeria arising from the distribution of petroleum products nationwide.