The pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, may rise from the current N162-N165/litre to N170/litre, while its depot price is projected to increase from N159/litre to N165/litre, oil marketers said on Thursday. Dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria warned that the rising cost of petrol at depots would definitely warrant commensurate increase in pump price if not checked.
They also complained of PMS supply problems, stressing that many tank farms or depots had no petrol, which was why the few ones that had the commodity had to increase its price from the approved N148/litre price to N159/litre.
But the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited maintained its stance that it had enough petrol to last the country all through the festive season and beyond. IPMAN and PETROAN members own bulk of the filling stations across the country and make purchases from depots before selling to final consumers at their various retail outlets.
Providing explanations for the rising cost of petrol at depots, owners of the facilities told our correspondent that it was because the recent agreement reached by key stakeholders in the downstream oil sector had yet to be effected by the Federal Government.
Oil rises as investors look past possible reserve releases
Meanwhile, Oil prices rose on Friday, after wild swings the day before, on investor concerns that potential coordinated releases by the world’s major economies of their official crude reserves to try to lower pricesmay have less of an impact than expected.
Brent crude was up 53 cents, or 0.7%, at $81.77 a barrel by 0437 GMT, after falling to a six-week low on Thursday before rebounding to close 1.2% higher. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for December delivery was up 49 cents at $79.50 a barrel, having swung through a more than $2 range the previous session before closing up.
The December contract expires on Friday and most trading activity has shifted to the January future, which was up 60 cents, or 0.8%, at $79.01 a barrel. Both Brent and WTI are set for a fourth week of declines. The market gyrations on Thursday followed a Reuters report that the United States had asked China, Japan and other big buyers to join a release of crude stocks from Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR).
“However, the market remains fundamentally tight and any volumes released are unlikely to substantially alter the global balance,” Fitch Solutions commodities analysts said in a note. “As such, we expect any downside to prices to be limited in both scale and duration.”
