Why Fuel Price Could Skyrocket Past N1,000 – PETROAN
The president of the Petroleum Retailers Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis Harry, has given reasons why the price of fuel may very soon reach the N1000 per litre-mark.
According to him, Nigerians will barely buy fuel for N1000 per litre in view of the outcome of the Naira-for-crude deal negotiations between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum company limited.
Prices of petrol had just been hiked to between N930 and N960 per litre from N860 to N880 in Dangote Refinery’s partners, MRS filling stations, and others. Recent petrol price increment was explained by him in the following words:”
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You can’t blame anyone. It’s the deregulation of the downstream sector. It’s the economic and environmental factors. That’s what we really need.
Why are people blaming Dangote Refinery or the federal government? Has anybody confirmed that the government has stopped the Naira-for-crude deal?” he told Daily Post.
So, that is why we feel that nobody should jump into conclusion to say the deal has been stopped. And therefore, based on that, after all, between that time and today, NNPC was still supplying crude in Nigeria and Sudan. So, for now, you can’t conclude that it is because of that deal that we are in this current quagmire of pricing. PETROAN took the matter up with the Honourable Minister of Petroleum.
And we were clearly explained that there are processes that are going on to review what has been done in the last 180 days, which ended today. And based on what we found out, the way forward was not in any way to stop.
The way forward is not in any way to stop the Naira-for-crude deal.
So, until that decision is made and pronounced, we cannot say that that has been stopped. And so, that cannot be the reason.
That is why we are very careful to ensure that nobody should blackmail the system. And any information that comes out should have empirical evidence of reality. So, if I, as a businessman, determine that there are speculations for my enterprise, I am at liberty to take certain precautionary decisions; it’s my business.
And the Dangote Refinery business in nature is predominantly a private business, and of the free trade zone; therefore, they have the right to make decisions regarding their business as they alone deem fit. Such decisions should, to our minds, be influenced by how market dynamics conduct the pricing.
And then, as far as I am concerned, it must be something that would have changed by any kind of demand and supply dynamics into the price structure for products or goods or services. So, for me, I will blame it on the changes that are experienced in the economic price, the changes as far as economic and environmental factors are concerned.
That will be the cause of that. And I don’t think I want to hold any particular person accountable for that.
In that case, if other refineries are looking at selling their products in dollars, we would have dollarized the Nigerian economy, which would have been bad for our naira to be battered.
In the words of the PETROAN boss when asked about the prediction of Nigerian oil price fluctuations, with or without his consent:
I speak now with variable evidence you laid out to me: the price will not be stable for a while, and the stability of price will only come once it has achieved a consistent average. Then we can say this price will be sort of stable, not volatile or whatsoever.
But as the situation hangs on experiments, the price will keep on being flexible.
Then from the same market forces, they will choose whether we are going to get N1,000 per litre. We are already selling for N950 and thereabouts. So, under no circumstance, will the petrol price not go up? But from the facts we can strictly see, we just work now with empirical proof.
Back to the drawing board, that is what we will do. We will go back to our members, consult with them, take a look at what the realities will say and they will come up with what I can endorse as the price made public for the Nigerian public. So for now that is where I will stop and allow the jurors of the market to determine the way forward for the business.
However, certain refineries and other stakeholders have been pushing the narrative that marketers, retailers, and depot owners are responsible for increasing prices, alleging that they store some products only for the purpose of making huge profits at the end of the day. How would you respond to that?
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