*PPMC sells N138.362/L to retail outlets, N113/L to depot owners
There seem to be fresh concerns in the downstream petroleum sector, as Oil marketers, under the aegis of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, berates the recent increment in the price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol across the country.
This is even as petrol stations across the country adjusted their pump price to between N147.40 and N149 per litre, an increase of about N5 from last month fixed price.
The National President of PETROAN, Dr. Billy Gillis-Harry, in an interview with newsmen, harped on the need for the federal government and its agencies to desist from arbitrarily fixing the price of petrol and engage all stakeholders before the prices are arrived at.
“With the new ex-depot price of N138.62 per litre for PMS, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, actually hiked the price of the commodity by around N30.30 per litre, forcing marketers seeking to purchase 30,000 litres of petrol, to source for additional N900,000.
“With the recent hike in ex-depot price, marketers would be compelled to sell at a minimum of about N148 per litre, while in extreme cases, the price of PMS could be sold as high as N170 per litre.
“Oil marketers would be faced with the challenge of mobilizing funds to purchase the commodity at the new price, Gillis-Harry added.
Meanwhile, iBrandTV gathered that Conoil petrol station, opposite the Head Office of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Abuja, the price of PMS had been adjusted to N148.70 per litre, while at the Total petrol station, two blocks away, the price was N148.8 per litre.
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At Kubwa, in the morning, Eterna, NIPCO, Gegu, Conoil, were all selling at N143 per litre, but had adjusted their prices to between N147.40 per litre and N148.70 per litre. Same thing was recorded at Total, Conoil and Mobil at Jikwoyi in Abuja and A.A. Rano, Nyanya, Abuja.
“The PPMC set the amount tank farms can buy from it N113. Who are the tank farms owners selling to? They are still selling to PETROAN members. This leaves PETROAN members with two choices; we either go to the government depots to buy at extra N30, which is N138.62, or we go to private tank farms and buy at N5 more.
“Of course, with this action, the PPMC is closing the government depots; and we are all going to patronize the private depots, because they would have about N25 margin. They can now decide to sell at N10 profit and share the remaining other ones.
“If that is the idea, at the end of the day, all the federal government depots that taxpayers money had been used to build would be moribund. There are so much in the issue that needed to be seen and addressed.
“If you really want to talk about Return on investment, and when you spend N138.62 per litre to buy from depots, which does not include logistics and loading expenses. By the time you add loading expenses, it is now going to be about N3 to N5 per litre, depending on the terrain you are buying and taking it to; which comes to about N143, N144 per litre.
“If that is the price at which you bought, how much profit are you envisaging for you to remain in business; you cannot sell less than N5 to N10 per litre. You can see this is why we said government should allow market forces to determine the prices.”
“Now, on the prices, the first problem that has come is confusion. In Kano, IPMAN members are selling at N150 per litre; in Port Harcourt, IPMAN members want to sell at N152; in Lagos, probably they are calculating to sell at N155. This is because there is no clear cut dynamics of how this has been designed.
“In Abuja, those still selling at N143 are those who still have products, because we have a lot of mega stations in Abuja. Many stations have upwards of 40,000 to 90,000 litres in their storage; they do not have any problem selling at the current price.
“However, the problem would come when they have to go back to buy. When they have to go back to buy, they must now come up with that N30 per litre extra; now where are they going to get the money to buy. That N30 per litre, where is it going to come from? Are marketers going to loan it from the bank or is government going to subsidise the N30.
“Where are going to get that N30 extra to be able to sell at a reasonable price to marketers.”
