The Minister of State for Petroleum Resource, Timipre Sylva has said that the recent announcement of a breakthrough in COVID19 Vaccine by Pfizer led to the hike in pump price of petrol in Nigeria.
According to him the announcement led to a slight increase of the product on the global market leading to the adjustment of fuel price in Nigeria
While speaking with journalist on Monday after a routine visit to President Muhammadu Buhari,the Minister said , ” What happened recently was because of the announcement of a vaccine for COVID-19 by Pfizer. With that, crude oil prices went up a little bit,”
He added “If you have been following crude oil prices, you would have seen that crude oil prices went up a little bit as a result of this announcement.
“So, when crude oil prices go up a little bit, then you will see that (it will) instantly reflect on the price of petrol, which is a derivative of crude oil.”
Sylva said since the nation had deregulated the downstream sector, the international prices of crude oil now determined how much the product would be sold locally in Nigeria.
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“When the price of crude oil goes up, then it means that the price of the fixed stock has gone higher; it will also affect the price of the refined product and that is why you see that product prices are usually not static, it depends on the price of crude oil which goes up and down.
“That is why we say, deregulate so that as the price goes up or down, you begin to go up and down as well at the pump. Before now, we fixed it – which was not optimal for us as a country,” he explained.
Sylva added that the nation’s earnings were not fixed because they were dependent on crude oil prices and fixing the pump price would be unsustainable at some point.
He stated that this was why the government decided to keep the price floating, to be determined by the price of crude oil in the international market.
