TheCable

The price of premium motor spirit, also known as petrol, may rise to N155 per litre as the federal government has fixed the ex-depot price at N138.62 litre.

The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) disclosed the new ex-depot price in a memo in Abuja on Wednesday.

The memo, which was signed by Mohammed Bello, manager, sales, PPMC, also disclosed that the new prices will come into effect from August 5, 2020.

The ex-depot price is the price at which depot owners sell the commodity to retail outlets. Marketers would likely add cost of transporting the commodity from the depots to their retail outlets, in addition to other costs, such as marketers’ margin, among others.

PPMC, which is the downstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), put the ex-coastal price of the commodity, which is the price at which the product is sold to depot owners, at N113.70 per litre.

It also put the ex-depot price for automotive gasoline oil (AGO), also known as diesel, at N160 per litre and N165 per litre for depots in Lagos and Oghara, respectively, while ex-depot price for kerosene was put at N160 per litre.

Aforesaid, it is expected that oil marketers would adjust pump price to between N145 and N155 per litre.

President Muhammadu Buhari had approved a monthly review of petroleum products prices in line with the international market prices since April following the impact the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) recently announced total deregulation of petrol pump price with the removal of fuel subsidy.

In July, the PPPRA recommended an upward review of the retail pump price of petrol from the previous N121.50 to between N140.80 and N143.80.