Recently figures from the official pricing template have indicated that the pump price of locally produced premium motor spirit, PMS, otherwise called petrol, is now being matched with the price of imported products.
However, petroleum marketers hinted that such a match would not be sustainable if exchange rates for both locally produced and imported products are left to market forces.
According to Vanguard report, the costing template managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, shows that the landing cost for imported PMS has been raised by 4 per cent to N956.13 per litre in October 2024, from N919.55 in September 2024.
The increase is mainly driven by the differential in the value of the Naira to the United States of American dollar, where N1, 625/$ was used for September while N1, 645/$ was used for October.
An updated transactional analysis of the pricing template made available for newsmen, yesterday put the total direct cost, including product cost at N887.45 per litre, Freight (Lome-Lagos) N10.37, port charges N7.37, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA Levy N4.47, storage cost N2.58 to arrive at N913.12 per litre for total direct cost.
The total direct cost was added to the finance cost, including a letter of credit (N16.53) and total interest (N43.01) which raised the landing cost of the product to N956.13 per litre.
In addition to this haulage cost and marketers’ margin along with other unspecified costs have pushed the average pump price to be around N1,000 per litre.
Consequently, while the average pump price in NNPCL petrol stations and major marketers is around N1,000 per litre, most independent marketers in the Lagos area sell between N1,005 and N1,020 per litre, contrary to the officially recommended pump price of N998/litre.
