Fuel still N145 as NNPC claims products price crash over sustained supplies
Whereas the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Sunday, said it’s steady, strategic intervention in the supply and distribution of petroleum products, has led to significant price fall of products nationwide, checks by Business Hilights showed that prices of fuel and kerosene have remained constant but with steady supply.
The corporation in a statement by Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division in Abuja, claimed that the fall was in the prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas. Ughamadu stated that in the last few weeks, the price of petrol fell steadily from N145 per litre to between N142 and N143 per litre in some filling stations across the country.
However, our correspondent discovered that the claim of drop in price of fuel is at a ratio of one is to every 10 filling stations in few towns including Lagos and Abuja while it remained N145 flat in suburbs axis.
On Kerosene, the case is different as the price has remained in the high side for months upon clams of NNPC that it sells for N50. There is no filling station in Nigeria today selling the product at N50 even though price tag of N50 is usually on display but nothing to sell.
For stations that have the products, they sell between N200 and N230 till date.
NNPC noted that a recent survey by the NNPC Oil and Gas forum showed that NNPC mega and affiliate stations across the country, sold PMS for N143 per litre, while some major and independent marketers in Lagos, Abuja, Sokoto, Enugu, Delta sold between N142 and N145 per litre. He added that an independent marketer in Mosimi, Emeka Ikechukwu, said the going ex-depot prices of PMS dropped from N138 to N133.28 per litre in NNPC depots and between N130 and N131 per litre in private depots. He, however, said prices remained constant in Aba and Umuahia in Abia and Calabar in Cross River, where most independent fuel stations and major marketers were selling the product at N145 per litre.
Ughamadu said the survey showed a similar trend of drop in price for cooking gas with the average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder at N2,215.96 from the former price of N2,500. He said states with the lowest average price for the 5kg LPG refill were Kaduna and Niger at N2,000; Kogi at N2,005 and Oyo at N2,033.33.
“At the NNPC Mega and retail stations nationwide, a 12.5kg of cooking gas that was sold for N4,500 few months ago is now sold for N3,800, while other retail outlets sell the same quantity for N4,000.
“NNPC has sustained its interventions through sustained improvement in the supply of products and remodeling of distribution channels to address sufficiency issues across the country.
“The corporation has also stepped up resuscitation of some of its critical pipelines and depots such as the Atlas Cove – Mosimi Depot Pipeline, Port-Harcourt Refinery – Aba Depot Pipeline, Kaduna – Kano Pipeline and the Kano Depot which enhanced efficiency in products distribution. “Efforts are also ongoing by the NNPC to revamp and re-commission other critical pipelines and depots across the country to further push down the prices of petroleum products for the benefit of consumers,” NNPC said.
