Private depot owners now sell the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, at N210 per litre, it was learnt yesterday.
The product, officially pegged at N148/litre in depots, has been scarce for three weeks.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said some marketers who paid for petrol at the depots wait for over two weeks before lifting it.
Its National Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Maigand, told one of our correspondents that the product has become more difficult to access despite the Federal Government’s promises.
Maigandi said: “There is no product availability. Most of the private depots are selling it at N210 per litres. They are supposed to sell N148/litre. It is giving us serious headache.
“Even at that N210/litre, you cannot get the product to load. Before you load it takes up to two to three weeks after the payment.
“Automatically, there is no product in most of the petrol stations. Yet, NNPC is saying it has large amount of product.”
The scarcity bit harder in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday as most of the retail outlets were not open.
Black Marketers had a field day, selling in cans for as much as N4,000 per litre.
Our correspondent observed that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has not updated its stock record on its website since November 24.
The scarcity has spread to states, with attendant hike in transportation costs.
In Jigawa, independent parketers hiked prices to N260 far liter.
In Oyo, motorists and commuters in Ibadan, the state capital, are having a hard time as gridlocks caused by fuel queues hinder free vehicular movement.
A litre of petrol now sells for N300 in black market in Ibadan.
Some marketers sell at between N190 and N250 per litre. But most filling stations are closed.
In Plateau, the product sold at between N240 to N270 in Farin-Gada area of Jos, the state capital.
At the city centre, virtually all the filling stations had no fuel.
In Niger, major distributors in the Minna metropolis did not sell. Independent marketers sold for between N240 and N260 per litre.
Though the product is available in Akwa Ibom, most stations sell at N250 per litre.
To attract patronage, some petrol stations in Uyo and other major towns like Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Abak, Oron are dispensing the product at N240 per litre.
The situation has resulted in higher cost of transportation.
The fare from Eket to Uyo, which used to be N500, is now N700 or N800.
In Benue, the only major petrol station that was dispensing the product along the Abu King Shuluwa road sold at N195 per litre, but others sold at N240 .
In Enugu, pump price remained at N250 per litre in most of the retail outlets.
The price has remained the same in most filling stations since late last month.
In Rivers, the product sold at between N179 and N250 a litre.
While major marketers sell for between N179 and N186, others dispense at between N230 and N250 per litre.
In Katsina, major marketers sold for N185 or N195, but others fixed their pump prices at N265 per litre.
Petrol stations in Anambra sold at different prices between N230 and N250 per litre. The product was available.
In Ogun State, none of the 13 petrol stations from Ajebo to Sapon sold the product.
Most petrol stations operating in Umuahia, the Abia State capital and Aba, the commercial nerve of the state, sold at between N240 and N250 per liter.
In Abakaliki, the state capital, the product was sold at between N240 and N250 per litre as against the official pump price.
In Adamawa State, petrol sold at N250 per litre.
Only a handful of petrol stations dispensed the product in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at between N235 and N250 per litre.
As a result, transport fares went up from N100 a drop to between N150 and N200 for tricycles.
Major oil marketers in Gombe adjusted the pump price to N230 per litre even as independent marketers sold for between N250 and N270 per litre.
Petrol scarcity is lessening in Calabar but the pump price has not returned to the official rate of N197.
Independent marketers currently sell at N250 to N300.
Long queues have returned to petrol station in Akure metropolis and environs due to the scarcity.
The product was sold at between N250 to N300 per litre at independent some petrol stations in Akure, Owo and Ondo town.
Petrol is hotcake in Kano state. The product is available but artificially scarce. There is a conspiracy amongst the marketers, according to findings.
Major marketers sell at N185 per a litre, while independent marketers are selling as high as N260 per litre.
The filling stations selling at N260 are always open.
In Yobe, the product was being sold at between N260 and N265.
The product is available in Kaduna, but there were long queues at most of the stations selling at N185 per litre.
Sylva: Nigeria to end importation soon
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, yesterday said Nigeria will stop importing petroleum products by the third quarter (Q3) of next year.
Sylva is banking on the refurbished Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State, which he said would be delivering 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refined crude by the end of December; and the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery which has attained 97 per cent completion stage.
The Port Harcourt Refinery is made up of two units, the old refinery commissioned in 1965 and the new one commissioned in 1989.
The old one has a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day and the new refinery has a capacity of 150,000 bpd, bringing its combined crude processing capacity to 210,000 bpd.
Sylva said Nigeria’s production of crude had improved to about 1.3 million barrels per day from under a million barrels previously, and that the country hoped to meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota by May of next year.
The NMDPRA had in October said the Dangote Refinery project had attained 97 per cent completion rate.
NMDPRA had, in a tweet, disclosed this while receiving the company’s 2022/2023 work plan.
The authority said the work plan showed that the project is in its advanced stages.
(THENATION)
