Fresh concerns have emerged in the downstream petroleum sector as several filling stations increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, while many outlets operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and MRS suspended sales due to product shortages.
As reported by Daily Post, checks in Abuja on Monday showed that NNPCL and MRS filling stations had no petrol to dispense, while other marketers, including Ranoil and Empire Energy, raised pump prices by between N55 and N60 per litre, selling the product for between N1,275 and N1,280 per litre.
The latest increase means petrol prices have risen by about N100 per litre in less than one week, amid growing uncertainty in the country's downstream oil market.
Industry sources also disclosed that depot owners increased ex-depot prices to between N1,249 and N1,270 per litre on Monday.
The development comes days after Dangote Refinery resumed the sale of refined petroleum products in United States dollars, with petrol priced at $0.779 per litre, diesel at $1.087 and aviation fuel at $0.942 per litre.
Although the refinery maintained that its gantry prices had not changed, some marketers alleged that product loading had been disrupted. Managers at some MRS stations in Abuja also confirmed they had not received petrol supplies since last Thursday, while attendants at NNPCL retail outlets said their stations exhausted available stock on Monday.
Reacting to the situation, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, urged the Federal Government to intervene, warning against the dollarisation of the downstream petroleum sector.
He said many marketers could not afford to purchase products in foreign currency and called for urgent government action to protect consumers from further increases in fuel prices.
Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, appealed to the Federal Government to revive the naira-for-crude arrangement with Dangote Refinery, saying the policy would enable marketers to obtain products in naira and sell at lower prices.
Industry sources linked Dangote Refinery's decision to sell products in dollars to concerns over the implementation of the naira-for-crude agreement, alleging that the refinery had been receiving significantly lower crude allocations than expected under the arrangement.
However, the spokesperson for NNPCL, Andy Odey, dismissed the claim, insisting that the company had allocated all available naira-denominated crude cargoes to Dangote Petroleum Refinery in 2026 and had not withheld any supply.
The Federal Government had yet to officially comment on the latest fuel price increase as of Monday night, despite mounting concerns from marketers and consumers over the impact of rising petrol prices on the economy.
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