Confusion as NNPC says no increase in ex-depot price of petrol in March

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says there will be no increase in the ex-depot price of petrol in March.

The corporation was reacting to a petrol pricing template published by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

The ex-depot price is the price at which depot owners sell the commodity to retail outlets.

Marketers add the cost of transporting the commodity from the depots to their retail outlets, in addition to other costs, such as marketers’ margin, among others to make the final retail price.

The PPPRA pricing template for March adjusted the recommended retail price of petrol from the previous N162 to N212 per litre.

According to the document, the landing cost of petrol is N189.61.

The ex-depot price was fixed at N206.42.

On February 28, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ruled out an increase in the ex-depot price of petrol in March saying it had enough stock to last for 40 days.

Kennie Obateru, the NNPC spokesman, had said the decision was taken “in order not to jeopardise ongoing engagements with organised labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship”.