Highlights
- The average price of petrol in August was ₦146.90.
- The average price of petrol increased by 0.1% month on month and decreased by 1.7% year on year in August.
- Borno State recorded the highest average petrol price of ₦157.00 in August.
- Bauchi State recorded the lowest average petrol price of ₦143.89 in August.
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released the Premium Motor Spirit (popularly known as Petrol) Price Watch for the month of August 2018. The NBS report shows that the average price paid by consumers for PMS increased by 1.7% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month to ₦146.90 in August 2018, from ₦146.8 in July 2018.
According to the report, the average price of PMS across the zones in the country shows that the Northeast recorded the highest average price of ₦148.81. It was closely followed by the Northwest zone, where consumers paid an average of ₦147.40 for petrol, while the Southwest and Southeast recorded the lowest prices of ₦145.01 and ₦146.19 respectively in the same month of August.
The NBS report revealed that during the month under review, Borno State witnessed the highest average price of the product in August 2018, with ₦157.00. The second state is Kebbi, where petrol was sold at an average price of ₦152.95 in August 2018, while Kwara State came third with an average price of ₦152.86 in the month of August.
The report also shows that Bauchi State has the lowest average price of PMS in August (₦143.89). Closely following is Katsina State with ₦144.08 and Bauchi State with an average price of ₦143.89 during the period under review.
Meanwhile, the report also shows that the 12 months average prices for petrol was ₦144.4 in August 2017, ₦146.0 in October 2017, and ₦171.8 in December 2017. Other 12 months average prices for petrol include ₦163.4 in March 2018 and ₦148.1 in June 2018.
Implication
This little rise in the prices of PMS could lead to a corresponding small increase in the operating costs of small and medium scale businesses (SMEs) since they rely on petrol as an alternative source of power. Hence, it may lead to a small reduction in revenue for them.
Effects on Stocks
Increase in Petrol prices could have a positive effect on the revenues (and by extension, on stocks) of companies operating in the downstream oil and gas space. These downstream companies are involved in the distribution and marketing of refined petrol. The companies include Mobil, Conoil, Capital Oil, Total, Oando, Forte Oil, Japaul Oil, and Eterna Oil, etc. These companies make money selling PMS. Depending on their share of the volume of sales, their revenues and profits may also rise.