By Monalisa Agbata
The Federal Government has linked the recent surge in the pump price of petrol to the announcement of the final stage trial of the coronavirus vaccine developed by foremost American pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Inc. alongside BioNTech.
This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, during an interaction with State House correspondents on Monday, November 16, 2020, after a routine meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Villa, Abuja.
The Minister’s explanation came amidst public outcry that met the increase in pump price.
As reported on Channels Television, the Minister stated that the announcement by Pfizer, on its COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, triggered a slight increase in the price of crude oil in the global market.
The Minister while speaking of the petrol price surge explained that “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, also noted that the pump price of petrol is directly determined by the price of crude oil in the global market.
He said, “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 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.”
The Minister further added that the price of petrol will continue to fluctuate depending on the price of crude oil and may crash again as experienced in March 2020.