Petrol Hits N212 Per Litre Days After NNPC Denied Price Hike

Eleven days after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) promised there would be no price hike for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol in March, the price has hit N212 litre.

Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) says the guiding price of premium motor spirit (PMS), for March 2021 is 211.11 per litre.

A pricing template for the period, February 1 and 28 2021, published on the agency’s website based on the average costs of imported petroleum products also puts the lower band of the new fuel price for the month at about N209.61 per litre while the upper band was calculated at N212.61 per litre.

A review of the pricing template showed the average price per ton of the commodity at about $561.96, or N169.22 per litre, while the average freight rate coat (North-West Europe to West Africa) of about $21.63 per ton, or N6.51 per litre.

This translates into an expected ex-coastal price of about N175.73 per litre.

Further analysis of the component charges in the pricing template showed that average littering expenses were put at about N4.81 per litre; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) charge N2.49 per litre; NIMASA charge N0.23 per litre; Jetty Thru put of N1.61 per litre and Storage charge of N2.58 per litre and average finance cost of N2.17 per litre, translating to an expected landing cost per litre of N189.61.

When other component charges are factored into the price computation, including the wholesale margin of N4.03 per litre; administration charge of N1.23 per litre; transporters’ allowance (NTA) of N3.89 per litre; Bridging Fund cost of N7.51 per litre and Marine transport average (MTA) of N0.15 per litre, the expected ex-depot price for wholesale products marketers would be N206.42 per litre.

The addition of retailers’ margin of N6.19 per litre would bring the expected retail price (lower band) N209.61 per litre and expected retail price (upper band) N212.61 per litre, with the agency (PPPRA), says guiding price of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol was calculated at an average of 211.11 per litre.