Petrol pump price drops to N140 per litre despite forex increase

• MOMAN laments low patronage, warns against under-dispensing

The pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, has dropped to about N140 per litre in some retail outlets in Lagos against the official price of N145, according to The Guardian enquiry.

Although the Federal Government has not officially reduced the pump price of PMS, many filling stations in Lagos have decided to reduce it probably to attract more customers.

A survey of some filling stations in the Lagos metropolis showed that PMS now sells between N140 and N141 per litre depending on the area.

As of last Tuesday, NIPCO filling station at Agric and S.O. filling station, both in Ikorodu, sold a litre of fuel for N140.

Others are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega station and Mobil filling station, both at Mile 12, N141 as well as Oando and Conoil along Lekki-Epe Expressway that sell at N143 a litre.

Corroborating The Guardian survey, National Bureau of Statistics’ price watch for August put the average price of PMS in Plateau, Borno and Taraba at N144 per litre.

It was gathered that many of the filling stations decided to reduce price when motorists began to show preference for some others where the product is mostly being sold at less that N145 a litre.

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Olufemi Olawore, attributed the fall in price to low patronage. He urged the DPR to ensure that consumers got the right quantity of product at the right price.

“There has been low patronage since the pump price of petrol was increased to N145 per litre. Many people are no longer buying petrol as they used to. In fact, some now resort to public transportation just to cut cost. The present economic situation has even made matters worse. Therefore, many of the marketers have adopted survival strategies just to remain in business. But the DPR must monitor the filling stations to ensure consumers are not being cheated in the process of trying to reduce price to attract customers,” he stated.

He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to continue its assistance to marketers in sourcing forex at inter-bank rates to enable them maintain the current price of fuel. “The moment government withdraws its support and we are no longer able to get forex at a cheap rate, the price of petrol will definitely increase,” he noted.

Also, spokesman for NIPCO Plc, Taofeek Lawal, said the price reduction was achieved due to lots of incentives put in place by the firm.

He said that the company had offered special incentives of between N3 to N5 to its dealer stations, which could allow them sell below the official N145 per litre.

Meanwhile, the NNPC said that the re-commissioning of the Escravos-Warri-Kaduna pipeline has enabled the supply of crude oil to the refineries in the two cities after many years of inactivity in an effort to combat the national fuel situation.

It noted in its recent report that the three refineries were working to deal with the issue of fuel supply and distribution across the country and it would go a long way to manage the crisis.

It stated that there was an ongoing competitive tendering process to find partners to overhaul its ailing refineries to ensure fuel sufficiency.

“The corporation intensifies efforts to maintain availability of petroleum products in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria and keep Nigerians abreast of the key actions taken in the downstream petroleum sector by collaborating with citizens and other stakeholders to combat corruption, inefficiencies and service issues in the oil and gas sector,” it said.