UPDATED: Why Petrol Price Increase To N170/litre
Daily Metro News NG
Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol to now sell between N168-N170 per liter across the country.
This is became expedient because the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has increased its ex-depot price to N155.17 per litre from N147.67 per litre.
PPMC disclosed this in an internal memo with reference number PPMC/C/MK/003, dated November 11, 2020, and signed by Tijjani Ali.
The memo, a copy of which was seen by Daily Metro News correspondent, said the new ex-depot price would take effect from Friday, 13th November, 2020.
The ex-depot price is the price at which PPMC sells the product to marketers at the various depots in Nigeria.
In its PMS price proposal for November, the PPMC put the landing cost of petrol at N128.89 per litre, up from N119.77 per litre in September/October.
It said the estimated minimum pump price of the product would increase to N161.36 per litre from N153.86 per litre.
The National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Mike Osatuyi, in a telephone conversation, said the over N7 increase in ex-depot price would translate into an increase in pump prices.
Osatuyi said; “The implication of the increase in the ex-depot price is that there is going to be an increase in the pump price. We are expecting the pump price to range from N168 to N170 per litre.
“Crude oil price is going up,” he said, noting that the Federal Government has fully deregulated petrol prices.
Following the deregulation of petrol prices in September, marketers across the country adjusted their pump prices to between N158 and N162 per litre to reflect the increase in global oil prices.
Petrol price band had also risen from N121.50–N123.50 per litre in June to N140.80-N143.80 in July and N148-N150 in August.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said in September that the government had stepped back in fixing the price of petrol, adding that market forces and crude oil price would continue to determine the cost of the product.