NNPC claims drop in diesel price to N155/litre nationwide, but market survey differ
Whereas the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has claimed that the price of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, has dropped further from between N175 and N200 per litre since June 18, 2017 to between N155 and N160 per litre in many filling stations across the country, findings by Business Hilights show otherwise.
Random checks across some petrol stations in Lagos showed that price of diesel range from N175 to N200 and no filling station was selling anything close to N155 as claimed by the NNPC.
It would be recalled that NNPC had announced that the cost of the commodity had dropped by about 42 per cent within a period of six months, and on Sunday, it stated that the price witnessed another round of reduction as of last week.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, attributed the crash in price to the recent strategic intervention of the national oil firm.
He said a national survey done by the corporation indicated that in the last few weeks, the price of diesel had fallen steadily, adding that the study showed that the NNPC mega stations and its affiliates across the country sold the product for N160 per litre.
Ughamadu said many major and independent marketers in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Onitsha, Enugu, Makurdi and most cities were selling the product between N160 and N165 per litre.
“In Port Harcourt, the average price is as low as N150 per litre,” he said in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
The NNPC survey, however, showed that the situation was slightly different in Asaba and Warri in Delta State, and Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, where most independent fuel stations as well as major marketers sold the product for N180 per litre.
In the first quarter of 2017, retail prices of AGO, which is one of the deregulated products, shot up to N300/litre in major demand centres.
The NNPC spokesperson noted that the sustained improvement in supply of the product and remodelling of the product distribution channels to address sufficiency issues were part of the interventions by the corporation.
