FILLING stations, particularly those operated by independent marketers, now dispense Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at prices that are higher than the bands approved by the Federal Government, with some filling stations in the North selling as high as N685/litre.
In July, the pump price of petrol was raised from between N537 and N550/litre to N617/litre at filling stations operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto and many states in the North.
The price of PMS was also increased from between N488 and N500/litre in Lagos and other South-West states to around N580/litre. In the South-South, the price rose from N515/litre to about N600/litre.
Oil marketers confirmed at the time that any shift in price by NNPCL stations was an indication of a rise in the pump price of PMS as approved by the Federal Government, because the NNPCL, being a national oil company, was also the major importer of petrol.
The NNPCL is now the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria. Other marketers stopped importing the commodity due to their inability to access the United States dollars, which is required for fuel imports.
“The price of petrol at NNPCL stations is believed to be the approved price by the government. So once the NNPCL raises its price, every other marketer adjusts his own,” the Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, stated.
President Bola Tinubu during his inaugural address on May 29, announced that subsidy on petrol had ended, a development that led to the jump in the price of the commodity from N198/litre to over N500/litre on May 30, 2023.
But rather than dispense petrol around N580/litre and N617/litre bands in the South and North respectively, it was observed that dealers of the commodity were selling petrol for as high as N685/litre, particularly in some states in the North, such as Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Taraba, among others.
In Abuja, independent dealers jacked up their pump prices to as much as N630/litre, as black marketers who hawked the commodity in jerrycans sold theirs at about N850/litre.
At the Aso Energy Resources Station in Kubwa Phase 2, it was observed that fuel was dispensed at N630/litre, against the approved rate of N617/litre.
A.A Rano filling station at the Jabi Garage, Abuja, dispensed PMS at N625/litre. Meanwhile, NNPCL filling stations at Wuse Zone 6 and Garki Area 10 dispensed the product at the normal pump price of N617/litre.
However, major marketers like Total, North West, Pinnacle Oil, and NNPCL stations are still selling petrol at N620 per litre in Kaduna.
A commuter driver, Kabiru Sani, told one of our correspondents that marketers especially independent marketers had been increasing pump prices since last week.
Fuel stations in Niger State sold petrol at between N619 and N625.
The product is sold between N640 and N660/litre in Kano.
Some motorists who spoke to this newspaper blamed the marketers for increasing the price of the commodity despite the fact that the Federal Government had not made any pronouncement on it.