*Petrol dispenser nozzle.
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Oil marketers have increased petrol pump prices without directives from the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, SweetcrudeReports findings have shown.
Checks at several petrol stations along Ikotun-Egbeda, Ago Palace Way and at Festac in Lagos state showed that marketers now sell between N149 and N150 per litre.
The development comes following an increase in ex-depot price from N132.62 per litre to N138.62 per litre by the Products Marketing Company, PPMC for the month of August.
In the last four months the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA has announced a price band for petrol but this time around nothing has been heard from the Agency.
Ex-depot price is the price that the product is sold at the depot to marketers. It largely determines the price of the product at filling stations.
A document signed by Mohammed S. Bello on behalf of the PPMC had indicated that from Wednesday, August 5, petrol from ex-coastal transfer point would be sold at N113.70 per litre, while the ex-depot price was put at N138.62 per litre.
The price band issued by the PPPRA for July placed the ex-depot price at N133.30 per litre.
Depot owners currently sell the product between N133.30 per litre and N133.50 per litre as the market expects PPPRA’s August price advisory.
In a telephone chat with SweetcrudeReports on Thursday, the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, said that in a deregulated environment, prices of petrol is largely determined by prices of crude oil at the international market.
“Petrol is just like any other commodity you buy at the market. If crude prices are up, it means pump prices would also increase,” he said in response to oil marketers increasing prices.
He advised government to focus on building refineries as this would eventually drive down prices of petroleum products across the country.
“We should focus on building refineries because this would make petrol cheaper,” he said.
“Government has to let people know that these are trying times for everybody, and try to create enabling environment for investment to come in.”
“It is not marketers that fix prices. We sell whatever we buy with just a little margin to allow for profit so we can continue to stay in business, else everyone would simply fold his arms if the market keeps being regulated without taking into cognizance market economics,” he added.
