The price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol is expected to drop to N500/litre soon, BUSINESSINSIDERNG can report.
It was gathered over the weekend that that Petrol which currently sells for between N900 and N950 in many fuel stations, may have its price further crashing to as low as N500 a litre in the course of the year.
According to oil stakeholders, the likely drop in prices of petrol in 2025 is premised on a strong downstream sector propelled by the deregulation policy of the federal government.
According to industry players, other reasons for the price drop include stable foreign exchange policy, price competition, Naira-for-crude policy and the coming on stream of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Dangote refineries. They also affirmed that for the refineries to sell their products in the domestic market and accept payment in naira will contribute to price fall.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had last July approved the sale of crude to local refineries for payment in naira.
In addition to this is the rebound of activities by modular refineries, which are now upbeat about the downstream sector and have concluded plans to add petrol refining to their stable of products in addition to diesel which hitherto was their sole product line.
This comes as Nigeria’s current daily petrol consumption has hit approximately 40 million litres with local production. According to truck out data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Dangote Refinery contributes an average of seven million litres while NNPCL controls 1.2 million litres, bringing the total to 8.2 million litres.
Modular refineries are out of the picture as they only produce diesel for now. The country currently has about 25 licensed modular refineries but only five are in operation.
This means that only 20.5 per cent of the country’s petrol need is met through local refining, while the remaining 79.5 per cent or 31.8 million litres are imported.
At the moment, the Dangote Refinery is producing about 30 million litres of petrol but only injects about seven million litres into the domestic market, a figure which increased by five million litres in October, up from its initial 25 million litres.
On the contrary, the 125,000 barrels per day Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), which commenced operations a few days ago, is operating at 60 per cent capacity with the production of Kerosene, Diesel and Naphtha.
