Oil marketers have raised concern about the delay in announcing the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, by Dangote Petroleum Refinery, as they announced that the landing cost of imported Premium Motor Spirit is now about N1,120/litre.
The landing cost is the price at which the commodity lands on Nigeria’s shores
Dealers stated that high cost of PMS from the Dangote refinery would lead to the importation of the commodity by marketers since the government has opened up the market for competition.
Recall that in July this year, the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria revealed that the landing cost of PMS was N1,117/litre.
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While the pump prices of petrol ranged between N600 and N700/litre in July, the cost was raised last week to between N855 and N897/litre by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, while some independent dealers hiked their prices to above N1,000/litre.The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, stated that IPMAN was speaking with its partners abroad while awaiting Dangote petrol price, but noted that a high cost from Dangote would lead to massive PMS importation.
“On the landing cost of petrol, we are waiting for our foreign partners to calculate how much it will cost to bring the product to Nigeria. This is so that independent marketers will also see how to import the commodity. So we are waiting to get the data from them.“I’ll tell you the actual landing cost once we get the data from our foreign partners. So if the landing cost is cheaper than what the Dangote refinery will sell, then we will see how to bring in the product.
“You know, it is now an open market, so anywhere we see a cheaper rate with good quality, we will buy from there. We don’t know the price of Dangote PMS. We are waiting for the refinery to release the price. However, we are discussing it with our foreign partners,” he said.
Maigandi explained that allowing multiple importers of the PMS would ensure availability and competition.
“One advantage of allowing everyone to bring in the product is that there will be guaranteed availability of products.
“There is also going to be competition. Once this happens, everybody will try to see how they can sell their products and buy another one. It is only when you sell what you have that you can generate profit,” he stated.
