Petrol prices rose at MRS and other Abuja filling stations over the weekend of 10 to 11 October, days after Nigeria’s government unveiled a discount at state oil company outlets.
MRS, the retailer that distributes products from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, raised its pump price by N39 to N1,409 a litre at outlets in Kubwa, Katampe, Gwarimpa and other parts of the Federal Capital Territory. The figure comes from a market survey by Nigerian newspaper Daily Post on 11 October. Rainoil and AA Rano added N10, taking their price to N1,410 from N1,400.
The rises reverse a week of falling pump prices. They also test a government plan to steady fuel costs without bringing back the subsidy scrapped on 29 May 2023.
Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele announced two measures in Abuja on 8 October. The first is a 30-day discount on petrol sold at Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited stations, with public transport operators first in line. The second is a proposed N1,350-a-litre ceiling on the ex-gantry or landing cost of petrol, reviewed monthly. The ceiling applies to supply cost, not to the price at the pump. When costs rise above it, refiners and importers would carry the shortfall and recover it later.
Oyedele said the discount comes out of NNPC Retail’s own margin, which he put at less than 5 per cent of the pump price. He said neither the federal budget nor the Federation Account pays for it, so it is not a subsidy. The presidency said that if NNPC’s landing cost is N1,300, the company will sell at that price. Oyedele said he hoped other marketers would follow, since he did not expect the spike in crude and petrol prices to last.
Marketers have instead asked the government to extend the discount to their own stations, Daily Post reported. NNPC’s own prices have not moved uniformly either. Vanguard reported that one NNPC Retail outlet in Jikwoyi, Abuja, raised its price from N1,380 to N1,405.
Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar rejected the 30-day discount as a temporary political fix that would not ease the hardship caused by high fuel prices.
The pressure starts with crude. Brent traded near $104 a barrel on 12 October, after Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and a hurricane that shut in much of the US Gulf of Mexico’s output. The Dangote refinery has raised its gantry price several times since August, most recently to N1,350 a litre in mid-September. That is the same level as the government’s proposed ceiling.
