The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has attributed the increased in the price of household Kerosene in the country to the pressure of demand and supply. The NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja that the price of the product had been deregulated.

“The point remains that the price of kerosene is deregulated. It is not as controlled with reference to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as Petrol, that is why we see the prices moving up and down. The important thing is that the trend you are seeing there had to do with supply and demand. The more the demand, the higher the price locally,’’ he said

Ughamadu said that the NNPC remained the sole importer of the product and had been augmenting it with the skeletal production from the refineries. He reiterated the commitment of the corporation to the adequate supply of petroleum products for Nigerians. “The corporation is doing everything to ensure that we import more volumes of kerosene because, we believe that this is the energy source that the low income earners in the country use,’’ he added A check by NAN in some outskirt of the Federal Capital territory indicated that the price of Kerosene ranged between N400 and N500 per litre. Most filling stations along the Kubwa express road, Dutse, and Zuba hardly sell the product. Most of the consumers buy the products from the road side. At Dutse market, the price was N400 per litre while within Kubwa it is sold between N450 and N500 per litre. Mrs Halima Saidu, a seller at Kubwa village market, told NAN that she buys from filling stations at different prices.

“I sell at N450 per litre now but if I buy at higher price at the filling station, I will sell above that,’’ she said. It will be recalled that he National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its National House hold price watch in June said the average price per litre paid by consumers for Kerosene increased to N316.43 in June 2 from N315.91 in May. The NBS said the price of kerosene increased by 0.17 per cent month-on-month and 13.14 per cent year-on-year in the period under review. The report said states with the highest average price per litre of kerosene were Anambra at N381.25; Abia, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom N356.67 and Enugu N352.78. (NAN)