Petroleum products marketers in Nigeria say the price of premium motor spirit, known as petrol, would drop in coming days as Dangote Refinery resumes loading of the product to members.
The president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, disclosed this to Bellnews in an interview on Monday.
Maigandi confirmed to Bellnews that its members have begun loading petrol at the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery.
According to him, the development would ease the fuel supply shortage nationwide.
He noted that availability of fuel among its members would certainly reduce the price of petrol.
“Our members have started loading at the Dangote Refinery at N877 per litre, up from N820.
“We are expecting that with the availability of the product, the price would drop a little bit. I can’t say how much a drop is expected, but there would be a reduction in price,” he told Bellnews.
Similarly, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, hinted that the availability of fuel would push the price down and bring relief to Nigerians.
“Whenever there are enough petrol products from Dangote Refinery or the Depot and the Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, the country should be wet enough to guarantee affordability,” he told DAILY POST.
Checks by Bellnews showed that MRS filling, Emedeb, Optima, Bova and other filling stations have resumed dispensing fuel.
Bellnews reports that in the past two weeks, petrol price increased to between N940 and N965 per litre in parts of Abuja.
Stakeholders within the country’s oil and gas sector had attributed the fuel price hike to a supply glitch in the Dangote Refinery.
Last week, the Vice President of Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, said over 310 million litres of premium motor spirit (petrol) have been billed for loading at the Dangote Refinery plant.
Bellnews reports that Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other Nigerian filling stations had increased petrol prices up from between N905 and N910 per litre to N940 to N965 per litre.