Oil Marketers insist Petrol should sell for N151.87/litre

 Though attempts have been made to assure Nigerians that there are no plans to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly referred to as petrol,  PUNCH news has gathered that the actual price at which the product should sell at filling stations is N151.87 per litre.

This “realistic” price is more than the maximum N145 per litre fixed by the Federal Government on May 11, 2016 when it liberalised the downstream oil sector, marketers with knowledge of the market and the pricing mechanism told one of our correspondents on Tuesday.


This, they said, was basically due to the continued scarcity of the United States dollar, adding that the true price of petrol was N151.87 litre, judging by the current ex-depot price of the commodity.

In a move to avert a price increase, it was learnt that the government conveyed a meeting of stakeholders in the downstream oil sector on Tuesday, which was held at the headquarters of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency in Abuja.

The official said, “The issue of forex has been a challenge to both the government and the oil marketers. All of a sudden, the dollar skyrocketed to about N400 and the product we are concerned with here is an international product. So, if they are bringing in the product by buying dollar at N350, then it is obvious that they are really working hard to remain in business.


“For if we are in a truly deregulated market environment, then the price of the product should have increased beyond N145 per litre; there is no doubt about that. Meanwhile, there was a highly confidential meeting between the management of the PPPRA and stakeholders in the sector on this matter.


Culled from ThePunch