Fuel price has skyrocketed from below N1,000 per litre to N1,200 per litre following the increase of fuel price by the Dangote Refinery.
Investigations by Sunday Telegraph yesterday showed that many filling stations in the country have upwardly adjusted their fuel prices.
In Abuja, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) sold at N940 per litre, others were selling between N1100 and N1200 per litre.
As of Friday morning, it was being sold between N945 and N1,075 across the different filling stations in Abuja.
In Lagos, some private filling stations have increased their rate to between N970 and N1,050 from the previous rates of between N935 and N990. It was, however, discovered that some petrol stations owned by the NNPC Ltd still sold fuel at N925 per litre.
Reports from some parts of South East, South-South, and some northern areas stated that per litre of fuel was sold for more than N1,200.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery had on Friday announced increase in the prices of fuel to its customers.
In a statement, the refinery announced that its refined products would now be priced at N955 per litre at the loading gantry, marking an adjustment in its pricing structure.
It stated that marketers buying between 2 million – 4.99 million litres will now buy at N955 per litre while 5 million litres & above will buy at N950 per litre.
This is an increase of N55.5 or 6.17 per cent from N899.50 per litre announced as a holiday discount for Nigerians last year December.
The notice read: “Kindly be advised that effective from 5:30pm today, (Saturday) an upward adjustment has been implemented on the gantry price of Premium Motor Spirit.
“Quantity: Previous Price (NGN/Litre): 2million-9.99 million -N899.50; 10 million Litres & Above N895. Quantity: New Price (NGN/ Litre) 2 million – 4.99 million N955; 5 million Litres & above N950.”
Recall that oil prices recently had risen to between $76 and about $82 per barrel depending on the type of crude.
President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Comrade Festus Osifo, had during the public session of PENGASSAN’s National Executive Council (NEC) in Lagos, blamed the highly depreciated value of the Naira for the high cost of petrol in Nigeria.
He said: “In terms of the pricing of petroleum products, the real challenge that we are facing as a country is majorly about our exchange rate. The price of PMS is high today because the exchange rate is high. It is also that exchange rate that has affected literally the price of everything. Before today, how was the cost of a laptop? Some could be purchased for N100,000 or thereabout. But today, you are going to spend about N1 million or more to get a very good laptop. The reason is because of exchange rate. That is the real challenge that we are facing.
“If exchange rate today is less than N1,000/$1, we would be buying PMS for as low as N500 to N600 per litre. The same way, we would buying AGO, (diesel) maybe slightly above that price, ditto kerosene, same with ATK. The reason why everything is high today is because of the weakness of our Naira.
“As trade union, both at Trade Union end and PENGASSAN end, we have been advocating for the need for our foreign exchange (forex) to be properly managed. Over these years, between 1999 and 2016, check the value of what our exchange rate was.
“Within this period, we were still importing. We have been an import dependent nation. But we were able to manage our exchange rate that it did not devalue up to as it is today. That is why we had relative stability within those period, but today, between June last year and today, you could see where we have moved to in terms of erosion of the Naira rate.”
