The Management of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), on Monday, vowed to henceforth come hard on petroleum marketers found exploiting motorists and other users of petroleum products.
Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr Victor Shidok, said this while speaking, in Lagos.
Shidok was speaking against the backdrop of complaints of widespread hoarding and variations in prices of petroleum products across the country.
The PPPRA boss said the agency would not stand and watch the orchestration of artificial scarcity by marketers and owners of gas stations any longer.
Shidok said the commercial regulator for the downstream of the petroleum industry would not also allow long queues at filling stations.
“We will achieve this by ensuring effective monitoring of distribution of petroleum products.
“The public should not be disturbed by speculations associated with deregulation since the agency is alive to its responsibility of dealing with dubious marketers.
According to him, PPPRA has been operating according to its mandate which has helped to eliminate long queues at filling stations.
“Over the past 16 years since the establishment of PPPRA, Nigeria has never witnessed a situation of perennial scarcity of petroleum products apart from occasional hiccups from supply challenges.
“In the area of distribution challenges, PPPRA has been able to establish stability in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
“We can say that we have not fully deregulated, but I am bold to say that we have achieved 75 per cent of downstream deregulation.
“This has made it possible to buy fuel without long queues at filling stations,” he said.
The PPPRA boss also said countries with deregulated regime had mechanism to protect consumers from exploitations.
Shidok said that PPPRA would not embark on production of bio-fuels but ensure integrated approach to production in the sector. (NAN)