The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, has closed seven private depots because of selling petrol above the approved N148 per litre.

The Chief Executive of the NMDPRA, Engr. Farouk Ahmed said the depots, including Ardova, Rainoil, TCL, Bluefin, and NEPAL would remain closed.

He said: “As the government and regulators, we had several engagements with all the stakeholders including the major marketers, independent marketers, transporters, the suppliers, the NNPC as well as other relevant entities and interested parties to see how we can address the distribution bottlenecks.

“Now, the market is not deregulated. So we’re still in a regulated environment as far as gasoline or petrol is concerned, agitations and complaints were addressed.

“For example, when we started with the transporters, The President approved an additional N10 for transporters to cover the transportation costs as a result of the high costs of diesel which is the main source of transporting other products as other products across the country.

“With regards to marketing companies, there was an increase in the freight rate related to the calls on the actual cost of bunkers.

For example, Lagos to Lagos, in the past used to be about 16 to $19,000 a day to charter so then it escalated to about $35 to $40,000 per day, to Calabar, for example, had equally increased.

“Then we sat down with the marketing companies and agreed to give them some palliatives through NNPC, as well as through our own regulatory control areas. But the market has continued to increase the cost of ex-depot prices.

It has gone beyond expectation and beyond reason. And Nigerians have been suffering due to that”.