In a significant relief for petroleum marketers and consumers, the loading cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, at private depots dropped to N925 per litre on Monday.
This represents a N27 reduction from the previous price of N952 per litre recorded last Friday.
Industry experts attributed the price reduction to a strategic move by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which lowered its ex-depot price of petrol from N950 to N890 per litre, effective from Saturday.
It was learned that some marketers who bought the product a few hours before the announcement would be forced to sell below the cost, incurring debts running into millions of naira.
Meanwhile, data obtained by our correspondent analysing petrol price movements at loading depots showed that there was a significant price drop across all depots although this is yet to impact the retail cost of petrol.
Nipco Depot reduced its selling price to N935 from N952 per litre last Friday. Chipet reduced its loading price to N935 per litre from N945 last Friday. Also, Aiteo slashed its costs to N925 from N942.
Wosbab Depot reduced its price to N930 from N947, while Rain Oil Depot made a similar change to N935 from the N947 that it sold a litre of petrol last Friday.
In Warri, Matrix reduced its price to N960 from N970 per litre. AYM Shafa sold at N960 from N970.
Zone 4 depot in Calabar reduced its price by N8 to N950 from N958 per litre. Alkanes sold at N949 and Northwest sold at N950.
Reacting, an oil and gas expert, Olatide Jeremiah said the price drop was expected.
He said, “Dangote refinery’s reduction of petrol to 890 has influenced private depots and importers to immediately review their fuel price downwards. His capacity in Refining and gantry loading has earned him the market leader in the downstream sector. The era of hoarding and price manipulation is gone. The market share war has forced all players to sit up, thus, it should start reflecting through reduction of fuel at the pump.”
He further called on the regulatory authority to completely regulate filling stations, so the constant price reduction at the depot would reflect at the pump immediately.
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