BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
Less than 24 hours after the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) announced an increase in the ex-depot price of petrol, petroleum marketers in the country have adjusted their display boards.
Checks by TheCable on Thursday showed that there is no uniform price amongst retailers as prices ranged from N159 per litre to N162 per litre.
On Wednesday, the PPMC announced that the ex-depot price of petrol has been adjusted from N138.62 to N151.56 per litre.
The ex-depot price is the price at which petroleum products are sold to marketers at depots.
Marketers are expected to then add their profit margin to the ex-depot price and determine the retail price.
The federal government, in March, announced that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would no longer absorb under-recovery costs and petrol prices would be subject to the market realities.
Since then, the retail and ex-depot price has been adjusted based on recommendations from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
When TheCable visited the Maryland/Ojota/Oregun axis on Thursday, fuel stations in the area were selling at different prices and they seemed to enjoy fair patronage from customers.
The Oando filling station at Maryland displayed N148 as its petrol price but attendants said there was no fuel to be sold to customers.
Mobil filling station, which is situated opposite the Oando filling station, was dispensing petrol at N159 per litre but did not display the price while Conoil was selling at N159 although its display board read N148.
MRS in Ojota was selling at N159 and Total filling station in Oregun was selling at N161. The NNPC Retail fuel station was selling at N160 and Awabat at Oregun was dispensing at N159.
Speaking with TheCable, Chinedu Okoronkwo, a factional president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said marketers are now at liberty to decide the retail price since the market has been deregulated.
“The market has been deregulated and marketers are now at liberty to determine the retail price. It is now left to the marketer to determine what they want to achieve,” he said.
“The association cannot fix price for members rather, we can only advise them on the retail price bandwidth and currently, that range is between N159 and N162.
“Our profit margin right now that prices are high is the same as what we were making when petrol was cheap. We hope the market stabilises.”
Photos: Ibraheem Mansur/TheCable
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