A new price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), or petrol, has emerged as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) commence lifting products from Dangote Refinery.
ENigeria Newspaper reports that for weeks Nigerians have groaned ceaselessly over the scarcity of fuel which significantly impacted the price of commodities across states in the country.
Some analysts who spoke to ENigeria Newspaper on Friday disclosed that the scarcity of petroleum products over the past weeks was artificially induced and allegedly orchestrated by the NNPC in connivance with the Tinubu-led government in an attempt to increase the pump price of fuel when they eventually decided to sell the product from Dangote Refinery.
Meanwhile, there are indications that the NNPCL would be the sole distributor of petrol from the Dangote refinery; a development that has sparked outrage among petroleum marketers.
Some marketers who spoke to this newspaper had argued that NNPCL being the sole distributor of Dangote products does not represent democracy, adding that there is a possible alleged discrepancy in the negotiation that eventually led to such a conclusion.
ENigeria Newspaper understands that the NNPCL, as the sole off-taker of petrol from the refinery, is projected to lift the product at N960/N980 per liter and sell to marketers at N840/N850 to enable Nigerians to get it between N857 and N865 at the pump at filling stations.
However, whether uniform product prices would apply at filling stations nationwide remains unclear at the time of publishing this report. However, according to the above indices, petroleum products will still be subsidized by the government.
As of Saturday, petrol sold at N855 per litre at NNPCL retail stations in Lagos and it was the cheapest anyone could buy fuel, while major marketers sold around N920.
At independent marketers’ fuel outlets, the price was over N1,000 while some sold for N980 per litre.
Also, in other parts of the country, PMS sold for more than N1,200 per litre.
According to a Presidency source, President Tinubu made it clear to the negotiating parties that “the price at which petrol would be sold to Nigerians should not be such that would place a heavy financial burden on them while dealing with the new reality of the prevailing price”.
Recall that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has, meanwhile, expressed optimism that the deal would reduce the pressure on foreign exchange (FX) demands and shore up the value of the Naira – presently, between 30% and 40% of FX demands go into the importation of PMS.
Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd., Olufemi Soneye, who confirmed the readiness of the company to start lifting petrol today, told Sunday Vanguard, yesterday: “NNPC Ltd has started deploying our trucks and vessels to the Dangote Refinery to lift PMS in preparation for the scheduled lifting date of September 15th, as set by the refinery.
“Our trucks and personnel are already on-site, ready to begin lifting. We expect more trucks, and the deployment will continue throughout the weekend so we can start loading as soon as the refinery begins operations on September 15, 2024.”
