With a landing cost of N1,117 per litre for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, the monthly subsidy on the commodity has increased to about N707bn, oil marketers projected on Monday.
It was also gathered that as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery begins petrol production in August, the company might export the product following the crude oil supply crisis and other regulatory challenges confronting the $21bn firm.
This came as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, met with officials of Dangote refinery, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The meeting in Abuja on Monday bordered on the recent concerns between Dangote refinery and oil sector regulators and operators.
Also, the House of Representatives inaugurated an investigative committee to look into the non-availability of crude oil to domestic refineries and allegations of deliberate hike in the cost of the product for profiteering.
Last Wednesday, the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that the landing cost of petrol as of the preceding day was N1,117/litre.
This came as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria insisted that the Federal Government was still subsidising PMS. IPMAN stressed that this was not sustainable and might lead to an increase in the pump prices of petrol soon.
MEMAN also revealed last week that the landing cost of diesel was N1,157/litre, while that of aviation fuel was N1,127/litre.
While the pump prices of diesel and aviation fuel are considerably higher than their landing costs, the pump price of petrol is way lower than its landing cost.
Although retail outlets operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and some major marketers dispense petrol at between N617/litre and N670/litre, dealers said the ex-depot price of the commodity by NNPC is N585/litre.
Independent marketers hardly get the product at the N585/litre ex-depot price. They mostly buy from private depot owners at higher rates, findings show. This makes their pump prices much higher. Some of them dispense the commodity above N700/litre.
NNPC is Nigeria’s sole importer of petrol. Other dealers stopped importing the commodity due to their inability to access the United States dollar, required for PMS imports.
