Oil marketers are awaiting the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, following the announcement by the plant that only the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited will lift the product from the refinery at the moment.
PMS was officially launched on Tuesday by the $20bn plant located in Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos. The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, announced that the 650,000-capacity oil refinery had commenced petrol production.
But dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that they had yet to receive any notice on the price of petrol from the refinery.
“We have not received any notice about its PMS price because he categorically stated that the NNPC is the sole off-taker of the product, which to us came as a surprise,” National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Ukadike Chinedu, stated.
He added, “We had expected Dangote to open up the market for proper competition. This shows that all these while the NNPC has been waiting for Dangote to release products, as it had reduced PMS importation.
“However, we are still waiting for them to tell us the price, but this, of course, will have its effect on the pricing of the product considering the fact that the cost of the commodity has increased at NNPC retail stations.”
There are strong indications that the price of petrol may hit N1,200/litre following the decision of NNPC to raise the pump price at its stations on Tuesday.
This is even as the Dangote oil refinery announced its determination to supply 25 million litres of PMS daily in September.
Nigerians woke up on Tuesday to see a change in the pump prices, from around N600 to N855/litre, M918/litre and above, depending on the area of purchase at NNPC stations nationwide.
Sources told our correspondents that there was a directive to the retail outlets to increase petrol prices.
It was gathered that the recommended petrol prices vary by location, as some now sell at N900.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that NNPC outlets in Lagos increased their price to N855/litre.
The directive to raise petrol prices stated that the NNPC Retail Management approved an upward review.
This is coming barely two days after the company admitted it was having challenges to import fuel due to a $6bn debt.
However, the spokesperson of the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, declined comments when our correspondent contacted him.
When our correspondent explained to him on WhatsApp that the statement had been making the rounds and reports from NNPC filling stations showed a rise in fuel prices, he replied, “Thank you for reaching out. I have no comment on the matter at this time. If there are any updates, I will make sure to inform you.”
Our correspondent gathered from depot operators that N250 has been added to the pump price.
It was observed that some major marketers have also jerked up their pump prices close to 900/litre.
The North West filling station in Onigbongbo, Lagos sold at N920 while Amuf in Ibafo, Ogun State sold for N1,000 per litre.
It was observed that the sudden price rise caused tension among motorists, who rushed to filling stations to engage in panic buying.
In Lagos, the few stations selling petrol had long queues, leading to traffic gridlocks in different locations.
It was also observed that many filling stations did not open for business while many marketers refused to lift fuel.
An official of a petroleum company at Apapa confirmed to our correspondent that no marketer was in their depot to load petrol as of 2pm on Tuesday.
This he described as unusual, saying many marketers may not be able to afford the new price.
Before now, NNPC used to sell petrol to major marketers below N600/litre, while the independent marketers bought from private depots for about N900.
While there are fears that the private depots may face tougher challenges with this new price, black marketers sold the rpouct at N2,000/litre on Tuesday in Lagos.
Some black marketers, who spoke with one of our correspondents at Victoria Island, Lagos, offered to sell five litres of petrol at N15,000. During price negotiation, they rejected N8,000, insisting that the least the five litres could go was N10,000.