The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the hike in the price of petrol was as a result of an American pharmaceutical company, Pfizers recent breakthrough in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Picture caption: COVID-19 vaccine
Speaking with the State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja yesterday, Sylva said the announcement of a COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer triggered a slight increase in the price of crude oil in the global market.
According to him, the pump price of petrol is directly determined by the price of crude oil in the global market. He stated that it was not the first time the government would give the same explanation whenever the pump price of petrol changed in the country and explained that the government took the decision to deregulate the sector in order to ensure its optimum performance.
Sylva added that the nations earnings were not fixed because they were dependent on crude oil prices and fixing the pump price would be unsustainable at some point. He stated that this was why the government decided to keep the price floating, to be determined by the price of crude oil in the international market.
