Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Thursday reduced the loading coast of its petrol from N825 per litre to N815 per litre, further intensifying the pricing war in the downstream sector.
Report has it that marketers are taking advantage of the N10 reduction by sourcing petrol directly from the refinery instead of relying on depot owners who may be forced to embark on a downward adjustment of their price.
Our correspondents gathered that he landing cost of imported petrol is N774.72 per litre.
The cost, which factors in various expenses, including shipping, import duties, and exchange rates, prompted retail marketers to opt for importation, ditching Dangote Refinery.
The landing cost was speculated to cause a reduction in pump price to N800 per liter, which may have prompted the latest reduction by the refinery.
Meanwhile, depots in Lagos are beginning to effect price changes, selling between N820 and N839 to reflect the new reduction offered by the refinery.
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An analysis showed that AA RANO depot left its loading cost price unchanged at N830 per litre. MENJ Depot also left its own at N830. Bovas depot sold its products at N826, WOSBAB gave its customers a price estimate of N831, while AITEO gave a price of N827 from N832 charged earlier this week. Integrated depot sold at N826 and RAINOIL depot sold its products at N831 per litre.
Commenting, the IPMAN National Publicity Secretary, Chinedu Ukadike, said, “Yes, there is speculation that the price of imported products is now lower. That is the reason for the price war. It is the beauty of deregulation. Dangote has millions of litres and would not want any external force to take its market share. So it would have forced the price reduction.”
Meanwhile, the landing cost of petrol has increased to N803.35 per litre from N774.82 per litre. This is still cheaper than the ex-depot price of Dangote Refinery’s petrol, according to the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria.
When contacted, an official of the Dangote Refinery, who asked not to be quoted, claimed not to be aware of the new price change but asked our correspondent to go ahead with what oil marketers said.
“We currently don’t have any information about that, but we will try to clarify tomorrow. You can report what marketers told you, but we don’t have any information on that as I talk to you.”
