- NLC: There’ll Be Formal Reaction
THE PRICE of petrol on Wednesday surged from N885 naira to 998 at petrol stations owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in Lagos, while in Abuja, the benchmark price of the product moved from 895 to N1,030, also at NNPCL filling stations.
The price of the product at major and independent marketers’ retail outlets ranges from N1,200 to N1,300, checks by National Record indicate.
National Record gathered from well-informed sources that soon, the price of petrol may well go beyond N1,500 per litre.
The increase comes after months of speculation that the federal government had resolved to fully deregulate, a situation which led to scarcity of petrol marked by long queues at filling stations across the country.
In September, NNPC revealed that it had purchased petrol from the Dangote Refinery at N898.78 per litre but was selling it to marketers at N765.99 per litre. This meant that it was subsidising the product (by N133 per litre).
It later declared that continuing the subsidy was unsustainable, leading to the speculation and eventual resolve to fully deregulate.
By Monday and Tuesday this week, the speculation got added fillip when media reports indicate that the federal government had formerly resolved to fully deregulate the petroleum sector, and had asked the NNPCL to withdraw as the sole supplier of Dangote Refinery products in Nigeria, thereby freeing major and independent marketers to source and fix the pump prices of refined products in line with market trends.
It could be recalled that on September 3, 2024, the NNPCL had raised the price of petrol at its retail outlets from N568, which was the lowest in Lagos, and N617 in Abuja and some other parts of the country, to a minimum of N855 in Lagos and N995 in Abuja.
It was however sold at higher rates by major and independent marketers in towns and cities across the country, especially in the north.
At the moment, it is not clear what the role of the NNPCL will be in the determination of price of petroleum products in the expectation that under a market-driven or deregulated economy, fixing of prices of products are determined by supply and demand variables and not by an operator or regulator.
Between September 15 and 30, NNPC lifted approximately 103 million litres of petrol from Dangote Refinery, a small fraction of the 400 million litres originally planned for that period. Only 2,207 out of the 3,621 trucks sent to the refinery were loaded, resulting in a 26% delivery performance, as revealed by records seen.
When contacted for the reaction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), its spokesman, Comrade Benson Upah, said the foremost labour centre in Nigeria will give a formal reaction.
“There will be a formal reaction, certainly. Meanwhile, there is no better proof than this that government has declared war on Nigerians!” Comrade Upah said.
Other than the price adjustment at its retail outlets, the NNPCL is yet to make any formal statement on the situation.
