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Enioluwa Adeniyi
Guest
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is set to introduce a new pricing regime for petrol following its recent lift of approximately 103 million litres from Dangote Refinery between September 15 and 30, 2024.
Sources familiar with the matter disclosed this development to PREMIUM TIMES.
During this period, the refinery managed to load 2,207 out of the 3,621 trucks dispatched, transporting a total of 102,973,025 litres of the planned 400 million litres of petrol, which was earmarked for lifting at a rate of 25 million litres per day.
This performance translated to only 26 percent of the expected output, according to records reviewed by Premium Times.
The NNPC began its petrol lifting operations from Dangote Refinery on September 15 as the sole off-taker of the product.
On the same day, the company announced it was purchasing petrol from the refinery at ₦898.78 per litre and selling it to marketers at ₦765.99 per litre, effectively subsidizing the product by nearly ₦133 per litre.
As consignments from Dangote Refinery are discharged at fueling stations nationwide, the NNPC indicated that the price of petrol would rise to account for depot sale prices, statutory charges, transportation costs, and regional distribution challenges.
Despite this announcement, petrol pump prices at NNPC stations across Nigeria have fluctuated between ₦855 and ₦897 over the past month, depending on location.
However, with NNPC gradually exhausting its imported petrol stock and increasingly relying on cargoes from Dangote Refinery, insiders have warned that an upward adjustment in pump prices is inevitable.
Previously, the company had indicated in a pricing template released on September 16 that once all costs were calculated, petrol prices at its Lagos stations would rise to ₦950.22 per litre, ₦980.22 in Rivers State, and ₦992.22 in Abuja.
The pricing template further estimated that the cost would reach ₦999.22 per litre in Nigeria’s North-West geopolitical zone, with prices in Borno and other North-Eastern states expected to hit ₦1,019 per litre.
In Nigeria’s South-east, the company said petrol would cost ₦980.22 while consumers in South-west states (Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo) would pay ₦960.22 per litre for the product.
However, company insiders said the September 16 estimate is outdated, given the fluctuations in foreign exchange in the country and the rise in crude prices due to the escalating tension in the Middle East.
“With crude now trading for more than $78 per barrel as of Sunday (today) and the naira exchanging for ₦1,660 to a dollar, there is no way a litre of petrol can sell for below ₦1350 per litre in Nigeria,” the official said.
The NNPC had on September 3 increased the price of petrol at its pumps from ₦617 per litre to between ₦855 and ₦897, depending on location.
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