Cooking gas, petroleum prices fall

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Sunday announced a crash in prices of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol and cooking gas. This is as a strategic intervention in the efficient supply and distribution of the products across the country.

It added that the intervention had also warranted a significant drop in the price Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as cooking gas, nationwide.

The corporation said a national survey by its oil and Gas forum indicated that in the last few weeks, the price of petrol had fallen steadily from ₦145 per litre to between N142 and ₦143 per litre in some stations across the country.

“The study showed that NNPC mega and affiliate stations across the country are selling the product for ₦143 per litre, while the pump price range from between ₦142 and ₦145 per litre in some major and independent marketers in Lagos, Abuja, Sokoto, Enugu, Delta and other major cities,” the national oil firm said in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu.

NNPC said one of the respondents in the survey and a manager at an independent fuel retail station in Abuja, Mohammed Abdullahi, noted that his station currently sells petrol at ₦142 per litre in line with the prevailing market situation in order to sustain the turnover of the business and to attract more motorists to its outlet.

The corporation in its survey stated that another independent marketer in Mosimi, Emeka Ikechukwu, explained that the going ex-depot prices of PMS had dropped from ₦138 per litre in most depots to ₦133.28 in NNPC depots and between ₦130 and ₦131 per litre in private depots.

It, however, noted that the situation was slightly different in Aba and Umuahia in Abia State and Calabar in Cross River State, where most independent fuel stations as well as major marketers sold the product at ₦145 per litre.

The survey also showed a similar trend of drop in price for cooking gas with the average price for refilling 5kg cylinder at ₦2,215.96, in contrast to the from the former price of ₦2,500.

The study further revealed that states with the lowest average price for the 5kg LPG refill were Kaduna and Niger at ₦2,000; Kogi at ₦2,005.00; and Oyo at ₦2,033.33.

It stated that at the NNPC mega and retail stations nationwide, a 12.5kg of cooking gas that was sold for ₦4,500 a few months ago was now sold for ₦3,800, while other retail outlets sell the same quantity for ₦4,000.

“NNPC has sustained its interventions through sustained improvement in the supply of the products and remodeling of distribution channels to address sufficiency issues across the country,” the corporation said.

It added that it had also stepped up the resuscitation of some of its critical pipelines and depots such as the Atlas Cove-Mosimi Depot Pipeline, Port Harcourt Refinery-Aba Depot Pipeline, Kaduna-Kano Pipeline and the Kano depot, adding that these facilities had enhanced efficiency in products distribution.

“Efforts are also ongoing by the NNPC to revamp and re-commission other critical pipelines and depots across the country to further push down the prices of petroleum products for the benefit of consumers,” the oil firm said.

Advertisements