THE pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, may rise above N1,000/litre in filling stations as the cost of the commodity in some private depots has been increased to between N920 and N950/litre.
This comes as protesters hit the streets of Abuja on Monday demanding the immediate dismissal of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mele Kyari, over the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
It was gathered that the NNPC had informed oil marketers about the financial strain regarding the importation of petrol.
This raised concerns among dealers, who expressed worry over the possibility of a halt in the importation of petrol by NNPC.
NNPC’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, had earlier declared that the national oil company was facing financial strain. NNPC is the sole importer of PMS into Nigeria, shouldering subsidies on the commodity running into several trillions of naira.
“NNPC Ltd faces financial strain due to PMS supply costs, impacting supply sustainability. NNPC Ltd has acknowledged recent reports in national newspapers regarding the company’s significant debt to petrol suppliers. This financial strain has placed considerable pressure on the company and poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply.
“In line with the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPC Ltd remains dedicated to its role as the supplier of last resort, ensuring national energy security. We are actively collaborating with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to maintain a consistent supply of petroleum products nationwide,” Soneye stated on Sunday.
Marketers said officials from the oil company had informed petrol dealers of the development, stressing that this may further lead to a hike in the pump prices of petrol in the coming weeks.
“Now, only NNPC Trading imports petrol, and they have come out frankly to inform marketers that they can no longer sustain it, which means they are subsidising the product all this while,” the National Publicity Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ukadike Chinedu, stated.
“Of course, the cost of petrol at the pumps may rise further in the coming weeks because up till now we are not getting enough products. So, something urgent and drastic needs to be done to tackle this challenge now.”
This came as private depots sold a litre of petrol at prices ranging from N920 to N950/litre, contrary to the position of the Nigerian Upstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority that depots were meant to sell PMS at a stipulated price.
The spokesperson of the NMDPRA, George Ene-Ita, argued last week that the petrol price reports the regulator gets from its officials at the depots were different.
“Our depot people see a different price because we ask them to publish the prices at the depots every day and it is not N850/litre. Our field agents at the depots give us a different figure,” he said.
When told that some filling stations operated by independent marketers in Lagos and many other states dispensed their products for as high as N900 and N1,000/litre, the NMDPRA official said such outlets would be brought to book if apprehended.
“If we get these outlets, all we do is to try and shut them down, because NNPC is the company that brings in the product and they tell us how much they sell as their ex-depot prices to off-takers. And we sit down together and work out the margins and there is no way it should be that high,” Ene-Ita added.
The NMDPRA spokesman further noted that there was no way the agency could reconcile the high cost of petrol sold by independent marketers.
“Once we get these outlets, we are going to shut them down. NNPC tells us how much they sell and there is no way the pump prices should be that high. We don’t expect it to be higher than N650/litre,” he warned.
However, checks by our correspondents on Monday showed that many filling stations owned by independent marketers sold petrol close to N1,000/litre. In Kaduna, it sold for as much as N1,300/litre in some filling stations.