Members of the House of Representatives are looking at the pricing of petrol to ensure that marketers get real value for their investment.
The Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of Pump Price of Petrol, House of Representatives, Hon. Raphael Igbokwe, made this known during their tour of facilities of NIPCO Plc in Apapa, Lagos.
The lawmakers praised NIPCO for making the product available at regulated prices across the country.
Igbokwe said users of the product should get good value for their money.
In a statement by NIPCO’s spokesman, Mr. Taofeek Lawal, Igbokwe said NIPCO was a case study of an indigenous firm in the hydrocarbon industry that started from a humble beginning to become a major player.
He said: “We have come to see the magic wand that has made you to have this splendid leap in few years of your operations.
“Yours is an excellent show case of good partnership of indigenous petroleum marketers and a core investor that is fast changing the face of hydrocarbon products storage and marketing in the country.”
According to Igbokwe, stakeholders support for organisations, such as NIPCO is a veritable way of attracting more Foreign Direct investment (FDI) into the industry, adding that with the rising profile of the company, there is hope for more FDI inflow into the economy.
Commending the acquisition of majority shares in Mobil Oil Nigeria (MON), Igbokwe said it was good for an indigenous firm to acquire controlling equity in downstream section of an international oil company (IOC).
He noted with satisfaction the state-of-the-art facilities in the terminal and the services being rendered in the storage and loading of petroleum products, adding that also worthy of mention is the seamless inflow and outflow of trucks at the depot.
The firm’s Group Managing Director, Mr. Venkataraman Venkatapathy said the visit of the lawmakers would afford them the opportunity to see the firm’s facilities and do an on-the-spot assessment of their efforts in the industry.
He told the lawmakers that NIPCO had been in the forefront of harnessing the great potential of the nation, especially in natural gas aside from storage and distribution of white products.
According to him, operations at the terminal are highly automated with little human intervention to guarantee high level of efficiency and accuracy in the storage and dispense of products.
Its Group Executive Director Corporate Services, Alhaji Aminu Abdulkadir, said if given the required support to access product, Nigerians would get good value for their money.
He noted that the company hardly does 30 per cent of its installed capacity, adding that with an improved product access, NIPCO could change fuel supply equation across the country.
Aminu said NIPCO employed Nigerians as part of growing the local content as enshrined in the Nigerian Content Act.
