'N200 per litre unrealistic' - Marketers address claim petrol price will drop after refinery repair

The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has explained that petrol prices would not come down to as low as N200 per litre even if the refineries were working.

The association disclosed this following a recently published report, where the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) claimed that petrol prices could crash to below N200 per litre if the refineries become functional.

IPMAN predicts petrol prices at N200 per litre

The Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of IPMAN, Joseph Obele, advised the Nigerian government to fix the refineries as planned to reduce the price of petroleum products in the country.

Obele disclosed that prices will keep skyrocketing until Nigeria's refineries become functional due to international variables and exchange rate fluctuations.

"But when our refineries are functional, Nigerians will buy fuel less than N200 per litre," Obele was quoted as saying.

Obele revealed that the scarcity of dollars has made it hard for petroleum marketers to import the products.

He added that the petrol distribution chain has experienced difficulty in the last two weeks.

MOMAN disagrees as Obasanjo asks FG to sell refineries

The Punch reports that the Chief Executive Officer and former Chairman of MOMAN, Tunji Oyebanji, revealed that the dollar exchange rate severely affected petrol prices.

Oyebanji stated that the prices of crude oil in the international market had been on the increase as result of OPEC output cuts. He said Nigerians must understand that the issue was the exchange rate, not the petrol price.

He said the notion that petrol prices would drop to N200 per litre was untrue. The development comes as President Bola Tinubu and Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri revealed that the Port Harcourt Refinery would begin operations by December 2023.

Lokpobiri said this during his tour of the Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemical complex in Port Harcourt recently. However, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the refineries cannot function in Nigeria. He asked the Nigerian government to sell them to private investors.

Fuel scarcity looms as marketers stall importation over Forex shortage

Legit had reported that some oil marketers in Nigeria lamented that the inability to access foreign exchange could affect their scheduled importation of petrol.

The interruption in the planned schedule, according to them, could also affect the delivery of the product to Nigerians.

A source within the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) disclosed this to Legit.

Legit earlier predicted that the petrol price might increase to around N720/litre due to rising global crude oil prices and naira depreciation.