NATIONAL: Covid-19 vaccine discovery responsible for fuel price hike, says Minister

MINISTER of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has attributed hike in pump price of petrol to breakthrough in Covid-19 vaccine by Pfizer.

While justifying his claim, the minister said the announcement of the breakthrough led to slight increase of the product at the international level, which led to the adjustment of fuel price in Nigeria.

Sylva made this claim after a short meeting with President Buhari in Abuja on Monday.

He said with that, crude oil prices went up a little bit, which necessitated adjustment.

“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, stated Sylva.

He continued, “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.”

Explaining the reason for his stance, Sylva noted that the prices of crude oil is determined by the force of demand and supply at the international level.

The minister said since the nation had deregulated the downstream sector, the international prices of crude oil now determine how much the product would be sold locally in Nigeria.

“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.