The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a reduction in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from N113.28k per litre to N108.00K per litre across all its products loading facilities as well as in its throughput operations.
Ex-depot price is the top limit price at which petroleum products depot owners or terminal operators are expected to sell to marketers, who then sell at a slightly higher price to end users through their various filling stations.
The corporation had earlier on March 18, reviewed the PMS ex-coastal, ex-depot and NNPC Retail pump prices.
By the earlier revision, which was effective March 19, NNPC ex-coastal price for PMS was reviewed downwards from N117.6/litre to N99.44/litre while ex-depot price was reduced from N133.28/litre to N113.28/litre.
The new reduction was confirmed on Wednesday through a statement by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru.
The statement quoted the Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Musa Lawan, as saying that the new ex-depot price of petrol reflects the company’s market strategy to make more sales while complying with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s (PPPRA) price template.
Lawan explained that the new price regime would enable PPMC to boost its sales volumes from the billions of litres of Petrol it has in storage while providing affordable price to millions of customers.
He said the new price was arrived at after extensive review of market realities by the PPMC internal price review unit.
While the PPMC boss was silent on a new retail (pump) price, it is expected that with the downward review of the ex-depot price, the PPPRA will soon announce a new retail price.
He, however, explained that prices of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), otherwise called diesel, being already deregulated, are determined by market forces.
Daily Trust reports that the downward review of the petrol prices is as a result of the crash in the price of crude oil at the global market due to the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
