Fuel may sell for N190 as crude oil now $63/barrel

Stakeholders in the country’s petroleum sector are working out a new price of litre of petrol as crude oil soared to $63 per barrel on Monday.

A litre is currently sold between N159 and N165 across Nigeria, but it may hit N190 in the coming days as the landing cost of the product climbed to N180 per litre from N151 due to the spike in crude oil price which hit $63 at the international market on Monday.

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On Monday, oil rallied to a 13-month high of $63 due to additional production cuts by Saudi Arabia and COVID-19 retreat.

There were also signs that some traders were caught off guard by the cold snap in the U.S.

But the increase from $58 to more $63 per barrel, yesterday, meant that refiners would now incur additional cost in the process of procuring, refining and supplying petrol to consumers.

This will make marketers to also incur additional cost, especially as a bulk of the product is imported into the country.

Spokesmen of both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority could not be reached last night for comment.

Last week, the organised labour, opposition politicians and other Nigerians had kicked against a fresh increase in pump price of petrol.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, had told Nigerians to be ready to bear the pains of an inevitable increase in the petrol pump price.

The minister was speaking at the official launch of the Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation Program (NUCOP).

He had said the NNPC could not continue to bear the cost of under recovery.