Marketers increase petrol price to N170 per litre

Petroleum marketers are beginning to adjust the pump price of petrol to N170 per litre from between N161 and N165, the Daily Trust has observed.

But this is happening only around Lagos and parts of Ogun State as prices remain largely unchanged in Abuja and parts of Nasarawa and Niger States monitored by our reporters.

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However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has insisted there was no increase yet in the price of petrol. NNPC’s spokesman, Dr Kennie Obateru told Daily Trust that the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a marketing arm of NNPC, which fixes the ex-depot price of the petrol had not changed the old ex-depot price of N155.17 set since November 2020.

He also said the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) was best suited to address the issue of the new retail price.

He was however silent on how much the corporation was paying on under-recovery considering the rise in crude oil price, which had pushed the landing cost to N180/litre.

When contacted on the possibility of having a new price band of a litre of petrol, the PPPRA spokesman, Apollo Kimchi declined to comment.

While petrol retail outlets in Abuja, parts of Nasarawa and Niger States still sold at old prices between N161 and N165, further checks show that some marketers were already selling it at N170 in parts of Lagos and Ogun yesterday.  At the NNPC in Ogba before grammar school, petrol sold for N162 the same with Amuf oil at grammar school while Total at Alaba sold for 162.44/litre.

Around the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos, fuel stations sold for 170/litre. And in Okearo in Ogun State, RainOil sold for N180/litre while some sold for N170/litre.

It was learnt that NNPC on Monday met with some stakeholders over the appropriateness or otherwise of having a new price band of litre of petrol as crude oil soared past $60 per barrel.

A source at the meeting said though the NNPC prevailed on the marketers to stick to the old price, considering the economic situation of many Nigerians, some of the marketers thought otherwise.

“We insisted on allowing market forces to determine the price as this is the true meaning of deregulation, but they (NNPC officials) said we should stick to the old price, considering the volatile economic situation of the country.”

The landing cost of petrol had climbed to N180 per litre from N151, due to the spike in the crude oil price, which hit $63 at the international market on Monday.

This means that ex-depot price should be around N185, though the NNPC had said it remained unchanged at N155.17.

Last week, the organised labour, opposition politicians and other Nigerians kicked against the planned increase in the pump price of petrol to N190.

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.