Petroleum marketers have said the Motor Spirit (PMS, or petrol) cannot sell below N1,500 per litre in the current circumstances.
They said the current level of supply, which leaves a huge gap between the cost-reflective price and the present pump price of between N617 and N820 per litre is causing supply shortage.
Speaking with The Nation on phone yesterday, the President of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr. Billy Harry, said the product is not sold below $1 anywhere in the world.
Harry, who was shedding light on why the marketers stopped importing petrol, added: “Nobody is going to import the product around N1,500 and sell it for less than N1,400. This is because you have to make profit to be able to restock the product.
“There is nowhere one litre of the product sells for less than $1, and $1 today is N1,600 or thereabout; it is almost N1,700. So, you can see, even if you import petrol even at 90 cent, you can’t reasonably make any profit.“So, the government is absorbing the shock. The NNPCL is absorbing the shock. We are willing. We are still making efforts.”
He decried the difficulty marketers go through to access forex from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as another reason for abandoning the deal.
Harry said: “We tried to bring one cargo when deregulation started. After that one cargo, we couldn’t (again) because to access forex to pay for other fees is such a challenge and to also be able to place our order became a challenge for the same reason that we can’t access forex from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Also, don’t forget that the landed price of petrol in Nigeria is quite higher than what is being sold at the retail outlets.”
The union leader expressed optimism that following a meeting the marketers had with some local refineries earlier this month, the petrol market would soon record some respite. But Harry could not give a specific time the local refineries would start working and selling the products to the marketers.
The union leader said the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had given assurances that they would soon start refining petroleum products.
Petrol queues spread to Lagos
On PETROAN’s expectations of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the union leader said he had not physically inspected the 650,000 barrels per day plant and could, therefore, not discuss it in details.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to convene a stakeholders’ meeting where the modalities for mapping out implementable strategies that would make it easy for Nigerians to access petroleum products easily would be discussed.
He said: “Dangote Refinery: we are yet to hear in concrete terms what is being done. We were able to meet with all the other refineries face-to-face but Dangote Refinery, we only discussed with them on digital standard.
“So, we need to also do the same thing that we have done with the other refineries to actually give our practical evaluations of what the situation is.
“But at least, we are happy that Dangote Refinery is already cracking products and even exporting. This is their first duty because they are in an export processing zone. So, they are not doing anything illegal. That is the way the law is.”
Also, the National President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi, blamed the persisting scarcity of the product on this month’s protest, especially.
He said the demonstrations stalled the loading and haulage by the union’s members.
“Because of the protest of bad governance, you know …there was no loading, but you have been seeing fuel. The only thing is that there are queues.
“By God’s grace very soon, the thing will normalise. Private depots are selling at N800/litre in Lagos and Port Harcourt. The price is so high.”
He also could not say when the local refineries would start operation and the depot prices they would charge.
“I don’t know the time NNPCL refineries will start operation but we are just waiting for them to give us a date.
“We are also waiting for Dangote to give us a date. We don’t know the actual date they will start loading and the price they will charge.”
By John Ofikhenua,
