Petrol price to fall as NNPCL imports massively – IPMAN
Following news that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) will soon flood the country with refined petrol, otherwise known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said, the pump price of petrol may drop in the coming days following the availability of the products.
The association affirmed this is due to massive imports of PMS by the NNPC Limited.
Ukadike Chinedu, the National Public Relations officer of IPMAN, disclosed this on Saturday.
“Once the products start hitting filling stations, fuel price will reduce because the recent high cost was due to supply drop,” he said.
The development comes as the Nigerian Port Authority confirmed that 18 ships with fuel and other items had arrived at Lagos port.
Two days ago, IPMAN and NNPC Ltd clashed over the reason for the re-emergence of fuel queues in some parts of the country, including Abuja, Nasarawa and Niger.
While IPMAN blamed the scarcity on fuel supply shortage, the company said it is due to a ‘price war’.
But going by the latest development concerning the imports by NNPCL, operators in the sector stated that the queues would not only disappear but there would be a reduction in price at independent filling stations.
Currently, petrol is mostly sold at between N580 and N613/litre at filling stations operated by NNPCL. Most other marketers dispense the commodity at higher rates, with some selling PMS for as high as N670/litre.
“The most important thing now is that cargoes carrying PMS ordered by NNPCL have arrived, some of them have berthed and they are discharging. So the partial scarcity we are experiencing now will be gone,” Ukadike said.
He noted that the inflow of foreign exchange during the Yuletide would not necessarily impact petrol prices; rather the increased imports by NNPCL should warrant a reduction in price.
He said the large PMS imports were confirmed to marketers by NNPCL.
On whether marketers had started receiving the products, Ukadike replied, “By Monday we will start receiving from Port Harcourt and Warri, based on my last discussion with the NNPC management.”
Another major marketer also confirmed the position of IPMAN, as he stated that “when you wet the market with products, there’ll be no room for profiteering.”
Earlier, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, stated that the position of oil marketers as regards the re-emergence of fuel queues was not true, as he insisted that the oil firm had enough products.
