Marketers Notify Nigerians Of Probable Increase In Petrol Pump Price

Marketers Notify Nigerians Of Probable Increase In Petrol Pump Price—–There has been a drastic increase in the Prices of Petrol for three straight months, rising from N121.50 to N123.50 per litre in June to N140.80 to N143.80 in July, N148 to N150 in August and N158 to N162 in September. On Wednesday 2^nd September, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) increased the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) to N151.56 per litre from N138.62 per litre but later reduced it to N147.67.

Fuel marketers across the Nation adjusted their pump prices on Thursday ranging from N158 to N162 per litre of petrol, saying a further increase in global crude oil prices would push the pump price of petrol higher (Ex-depot price is the price at which petrol is sold to marketers at the depots).

With the collapse of crude oil price worldwide due to the pandemic, the price of petrol was reduced from N145 per litre to N125 in March. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency said it would relate to the NNPC and oil marketing companies the monthly “guiding retail price” at which the product shall be sold across the country. On May 15, The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, had said in a statement that deregulation was approved on March 19 this year; He also added that that PMS and other petroleum products were very strategic commodities, so their prices could not be determined wholly by marketers.

The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu had earlier said in June that “For the avoidance of doubt, it is instructive to state that no private individual or group has the mandate to fix prices of petroleum products, however, the statutory regulatory body is saddled with the responsibility of advising guiding prices.” Still the PPPRA has stayed mute, failing to issue guiding prices since August.