Fuel prices are expected to fall in the near future at filling stations, according to oil dealers

According to oil dealers on Saturday, the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, or petrol, may be lowered this week in filling stations run by independent marketers as a result of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s large imports of PMS.

It was learned that the recent increase in petrol prices at independent marketers’ retail locations was caused by a shortage of the good, which prompted profit-seeking actions by filling stations and depot owners alike.

However, while some of the cargoes were currently being discharged at the ports, companies in the downstream oil sector verified to our correspondent on Saturday night that multiple cargoes imported by NNPCL had arrived in Nigeria.

According to Chief Ukadike Chinedu, National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, “fuel prices will reduce once the products start hitting filling stations, because the recent high cost was due to supply drop.” Chinedu spoke with our correspondent.

Oil marketers attributed the formation of gasoline lines at gas stations in Abuja, as well as in the surrounding states of Nasarawa and Niger, on Thursday to the limited quantity of PMS supplied by NNPCL, the product’s only importer.

The national oil corporation, on the other hand, disagreed with marketers, claiming that a “price war” was to blame for the lines in the impacted areas.

However, operators in the industry claimed that prices at independent filling stations will drop and that waits would vanish, based on the most recent developments about the imports by NNPCL.

Petrol is currently mostly offered at NNPCL-operated filling stations for between N580 and N613/litre. The majority of other marketers charge more for the product; some even sell PMS for N670 per litre.

The fact that loads containing PMS that NNPCL ordered have arrived, some of which have berthed, and are presently discharging, is the most significant development at this time. Thus, the current state of partial shortage will end, according to Ukadike.

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He stated that higher imports by NNPCL should be grounds for a price drop rather than the Yuletide infusion of foreign cash that would not necessarily affect petrol prices.

He claimed that NNPCL had verified to marketers the significant imports of PMS.

Ukadike said, “By Monday we will start receiving from Port Harcourt and Warri, based on my last discussion with the NNPC management,” in response to a question about whether marketers had begun receiving the supplies.

By saying that “there’ll be no room for profiteering when you wet the market with products,” a well-known marketer echoed IPMAN’s viewpoint.

Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, had earlier said that the oil company had enough goods and that oil marketers’ claims about the resurgence of fuel lines were untrue.

This is untrue. In essence, the recent tightness in Abuja is just a pricing war, as is common in any sector that is competitive. Drivers prefer to wait in queue at petrol stations with cheaper prices than others.

“NNPC retail is selling in Abuja for N613/litre, but other marketers are charging between N625 and N650/litre,” Soneye stated.