The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Sunday said it had successfully crashed the pump price of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, by about 42 per cent nationwide.

It described this as a huge reduction over the past six months, linking it to series of interventions by the national oil firm in the downstream oil sector.

Explaining how this was achieved, the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, stated that in the first quarter of this year, the retail price of AGO, which is one of the deregulated products, was N300 per litre in major demand centres across the country.

“Such unpleasant situation placed a huge burden on truck drivers, who need the product to remain in business; the nation’s manufacturing sector, which requires it to run its operations; and the masses, who need it for household power generation,” he said.

He, however, noted that following the various interventions by the oil firm for sustained improvement in the supply of diesel, the product’s retail price as of the end of May this year dropped to between N175 per litre and N200 per litre, a decrease of about 42 per cent, while the ex-depot price also dropped to between N135 per litre and N155 per litre.

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