There were indications yesterday from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that the product may be sold for N88 per litre at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stations and N88.50 in other stations starting from today.
Until this new template, the NNPC’s official price for a litre of fuel was N86 while for others it was N86.50. The new price mechanism that is expected to take effect today is a requirement of price modulation system that is reviewed every quarter.
The proposal for the price template for the second quarter of the year (April to June) was tabled before the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu by the PPPRA boss, Mrs. Sotonye Iyoyo early this week.
It could not be ascertained yesterday whether the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is attending a conference in Washington DC in the United States, approved the template before leaving the country.
The breakdown indicates that government is expected to get N400 million daily as the country still operates on over-recovery basis, which means that Nigerians are paying extra N10 on every litre of petrol they buy at the filling stations.
With an estimated 40 million litres of petrol consumed per day, the Federal Government will mobilise about N36 billion into the dedicated account that is opened in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for over-recovery funds in the second quarter of 2016.
The price template on the PPPRA website that was last updated on March18, 2016 indicates that the landing cost of petrol stood at N71.49 kobo while ex-depot (for collection) was put at N76.50 kobo. But this is expected to change within the first few hours of today.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has increased import allocation permits for petrol, from three million metric tonnes in the first quarter, to 3.5 million tonnes in the second quarter.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, said it waded into the supply chain with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), as part of moves to end the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
The NNPC restated its commitment to boosting the nation’s refining capacity, which in turn would put an end to the perennial fuel scarcity in the country.
PPPRA spokesman Lanre Oladele disclosed that the allocation was issued to NNPC and other private fuel marketers.
Among the 47 companies to benefit from the allocation are; Oando, Sahara Energy, Forte, Conoil, MRS Oil and Gas, Shorelinks, Hyde Energy, Heyden and the local downstream subsidiaries of ExxonMobil and Total.
In the first quarter the regulator handed 78 per cent of the allocation to NNPC and 22 per cent to private companies and fuel marketers.
According to the spokesman, the allocation ratio has been reversed in the Q2 programme, with NNPC handling 41.7 per cent and private marketers 58.3 per cent.