The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said there is no increment in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) this month despite the rise in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the NNPC to marketers at the depots.

The NNPC ruled out any increment in the ex-depot price on Thursday in a press release by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru.

It said the decision was to allow ongoing engagements with organised labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that would not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship, to be concluded.

The corporation urged petroleum products marketers not to engage in hoarding of petrol in order not to create artificial scarcity and unnecessary hardship for Nigerians.

It gave an assurance that it has enough stock of petrol to keep the nation well supplied for about 40 days.

The NNPC further called on relevant regulatory authorities to step up monitoring of the activities of marketers with a view to sanctioning those involved in products hoarding or arbitrary increase of pump price.

The corporation recalled that the nation’s downstream sector was deregulated in March 2020 with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, stating that the prices of petroleum products would be determined by prevailing market forces.