Revealed: Fuel import differentials may push pump price to over N145 soon
Facts and figures from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown that the Nigeria’s downstream petroleum industry lost about N884.8 million in seven days to the high cost of importing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, resulting from a differential of N3.16 per litre.
Otherwise, with Nigeria’s petrol consumption put at 40 million litres per day, Nigeria lost about N126.4 million daily to import differentials between June 30 to July 6, 2017, according to latest oil and gas data from the NBS.
Despite capping PMS at N145 per litre, the average expected open market price of petrol rose to N148.16 during the period under review, thereby leading to a loss of N3.16 kobo a litre for importer of the product.
From the NBS’s weekly selected oil and gas data released weekend, an average landing cost of N128.79 per litre and expected open market price of N148.16.
Apart from the N3.16 lost per litre of product during the period under review, petrol still sold at the regulated price of N145 per litre, except for some states, which regularly sold the product above pump price.
Some of the affected states are distant from port cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt and Warri.
