Profit-crazy marketers of petrol have been catching-in on the sudden removal of subsidy on the essential product and have been smiling to the banks since January, 2 when the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced that the commodity would now be selling at N141.50 per litre.
Their excessive profit margin makes them to rake –in a whopping N776 Million everyday day as they cheat desperate Lagosians who need petrol badly for their vehicles and for other uses.
Profit-crazy marketers of petrol have been catching-in on the sudden removal of subsidy on the essential product and have been smiling to the banks since January, 2 when the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced that the commodity would now be selling at N141.50 per litre.
Their excessive profit margin makes them to rake –in a whopping N776 Million everyday day as they cheat desperate Lagosians who need petrol badly for their vehicles and for other uses.
Our findings since the subsidy removal was announced revealed that most filling stations still sell the subsidized petrol which they had received prior to the subsidy removal at N150 per litre.
Official sources at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary; PPMC as well as the PPPRA confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that prior to the removal, the ex-depot price of petrol was N53 per litre, which the marketers then sold at N65 per litre at their filling stations.
Official sources at the NNPC as well as industry players put the nation’s total daily petrol consumption at 32Million litres, and confirmed that Lagos State alone consumes 8 million litres of fuel daily which is about 40% of the total national consumption.
By our calculation, the marketers are currently making about N97 on each litre of petrol that they dispense, based on the current price of N150 for petrol that cost them N53 from the depot. This amounts to a profit of about N97 daily on every litre that is sold.
According to details obtained from the website of PPPRA, Lagos State has the highest number of major marketers with more than 462 retail outlets.
Prior to subsidy removal, the ex-depot price of petrol is about N139.69. This amounts to a subsidy of N74.69 per litre which the government was formally bearing responsibility for.
The expected price of N139.69 was arrived at by adding a margin of N15.49 to the landing cost of the product, which is N124.20 per liter, according to data on the PPPRA website.
While speaking with Shipping Position Daily, the depot manager of the biggest tank farm in Lagos which is one of the ones being used by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to distribute petroleum product; Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Goffery Okorie confirmed that the depot is yet to commence distribution of product for the year and therefore a fixed price have not yet been determined.
In the whole of Apapa Lagos, NIPCO and Folawiyo Energy has been confirmed as the only tank farms currently selling fuel.
Okorie confirmed that an average of 1,000 trucks arereleased from the depot on a daily basis.
Speaking on the sudden removal of subsidy, Okorie said thathe was not aversed to removal of subsidy, “ but there must be certain structures in place as well as wide consultations with the downstream operators before the government can say it wants to deregulate, we expect the president to have called for a meeting of all the stakeholders before removing the subsidy”.
“What government has succeeded in doing now is to shift the payment of the landing cost to the masses, and for those selling subsidized fuel at N150, they will have to pay back to the government” Okorie said.
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