Regulators of the petrol supply chain – the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited — have kept silent as marketers sell petrol at arbitrary prices.
The NMDA and NNPC appear to have lost control as they have done nothing to prevent sales of the product above the N162/N165 approved for a liter.
Those who shut their filling stations to consumers say they would be selling at a loss if they buy a liter from the depot at between N170/N175 and dispense at the regulated price.
The ex-depot price as fixed by the regulators stood at N148 as of last night.
Only a few stations sell petrol at the regulated price. Prices ranged between N170 and N200 per liter in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The liter price is higher in the hinterlands.
Checkout Magazine gathered from a reliable source that the marketers who had been complaining about the high cost of operation were emboldened to raise the pump price rising from a meeting with the NNPC Group Managing Director (GMD), Malam Mele Kyari, last week.
In Lagos, Ogun, Abuja, and many other states, arbitrary prices are displayed on the meters.
Fueling speculations that the regulators were privy to the price increase was the fact that NMDPRA has refused to post the PMS price template on its website.
