There are reports that the pump price of petrol has increased to between N930 and N970 per litre in some parts of Lagos and its outskirt as against the former price of N865 per litre.
It was noticed that these price changes were implemented on Saturday evening with attendants in some of these filling stations saying that they sold petrol at N865 per litre earlier in the day before the got instructions on the increase
This may not be unconnected to the recent revelations by oil marketers that the landing cost of imported petrol has increased by N88 per litre in one week amid reports of an increase in the importation of the commodity.
Nairametrics can confirm that an AP filling station on Admiralty Road in Lekki Phase 1 was selling the product at N930 per litre with some other retail outlets in Lagos selling at between N930 and N935 per litre.
Similarly, retail stations at Abuja and Magboro in Ogun state are selling petrol at prices ranging between N960 per litre and N970 per litre.
This is about the first petrol price increase since the beginning of 2025 as against several reductions this year with the price war between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and Dangote Refinery.
Backstory
Dangote refinery had on March 19, 2025, announced that it will stop the domestic supply of petrol in naira due to the suspension of the naira for crude by the NNPC. It stated that the temporary decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in U.S. dollars.
However, the NNPC in its clarification, denied halting the naira for crude with NNPC and other local refiners but rather explained that the contract for the sale of crude oil in naira was structured as a six-month agreement for the first stage, subject to availability, and expired at the end of March 2025.
The NNPC’s Group Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said that under the arrangement, the state-owned oil firm has made over 48 million barrels of crude oil available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024, noting that discussions are ongoing to renew the Naira-for-Crude arrangement.
Oil marketers under the aegis of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) had rejected the decision by the Dangote refinery to sell refined petroleum products in dollars.
The National President of the association, Billy Gillis-Harry, had during a chat with journalists, urged the Federal Government not to allow the Dangote refinery to sell petrol in dollars to Nigerian marketers.
Billy Gillis-Harry said the announcement created tension among marketers who now panic-buy petrol over fear of possible scarcity or price surge.
According to him, allowing the sale of fuel in dollars will hurt the economy, bring undue pressure and worsen inflationary pressure.
There had been unconfirmed reports that the NNPC had allocated large volumes of crude oil to its foreign creditors to settle the loans acquired by the firm, making it difficult to sustain the naira-for-crude deal between NNPCL and the Dangote refinery.
This allowed the free importation of products, as private depot owners hiked their prices to maximise profit.
