By JUDO LEONARD

The Federal Government has gazetted the market-based pricing regime, giving oil marketers the power to fix petrol pump price based on market dynamics.

An official gazette containing the new fuel price regime was made available to our reporter on Wednesday by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s spokesman, Apollo Kimchi.

Oil marketers were last week given the liberality to bargain and fix petrol prices as the country began full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector.

The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Saidu Abdulkadir, had said at a press briefing that “the pronouncement that the sector is deregulated means that prices would strictly be based on the forces of demand and supply”.

He said: “It is a market that is open, based on bargaining power and based on where you source your product.”

Giving a background on how the price fixing works, Abdulkadir, said the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) had been the one announcing the price of petrol over the last few months, because it was within its rights to do so, as one of the oil marketers and major supplier of the commodity.

But he explained that the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol is not directly correlated with crude oil price, adding that a number of other factors are responsible for the price of the commodity.

He reiterated that the price of petrol in the Nigerian market would be determined by market forces.

The PPPRA, however, would continue to remain relevant irrespective of the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, he said.

The agency, he said, would continue to regulate the sector, and stipulate codes of conduct within which marketers must operate by. (Daily Trust)