HARRISON EDEH FROM ICIR NIGERIA
Scarcity of premium motor spirit, widely known as petrol, has worsened at retail outlets across the country, with pump price spiralling arbitrarily and vehicles forming long queues at filling stations where the product is available.
Petrol marketers, especially those in the independent group, have persistently complained of acute difficulty in getting the product.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCLtd) is the sole importer of petroleum into the country, supplying to marketers through their respective depots across the country.
The NNPCLtd ex-depot price is currently put at N160 per litre. However, independent marketers say that figure is a facade as they now buy the product at nothing less than N220 per litre at depots, that is if it is even available.
They add that increasing operational logistics cost was impacting their business negatively and affecting price determination.
Independent marketers had since last year declared they would not be able to match the pump price of major marketers because of operational logistics. So while retail NNPCLtd filling stations and other major marketers like Total sell at N169-N179 per litre in Lagos and N174-N180 in Abuja, independent marketers have been selling at prices ranging from N250 per litre to N500, depending on the state.
Unlike before when independent marketers masked pump prices, they now openly display such prices, suggesting a complete breakdown of government price control, regulation and enforcement. Consumers complain that even at that, some marketers still manipulate their pumps to defraud buyers, dispensing petrol quantity that falls a lot short of the figures displayed on their pumps.
Mele Kyari, the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCLtd, which maintains that the company always imports adequate volume of petroleum for consumption nationwide, accused marketers of taking the product to areas in the country where they can sell at higher price margins.
Checks yesterday in the Maraba axis of Nasarawa State showed a variation of prices in different petroleum retail outlets. Our correspondent’s observation at the NIPCO filling station on Abacha road in Maraba-Nasarawa showed the fuel selling at N195 per litre.
