Petrol Price To Crash Below N600 Per Litre – CORAN.
The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) has proposed that the Nigerian government set the exchange rate at N1,000 per dollar to help reduce the price of petrol refined at Dangote Refinery to below N600 per litre.
In a statement, CORAN spokesperson Eche Idoko made this suggestion, addressing the recent surge in petrol prices, which now range between N950 and N1,100 per litre across Nigeria.
The call for intervention follows the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPC) announcement of a new petrol price hike last week, attributed to the lifting of Dangote Petroleum.
The NNPC stated that the increase was due to Dangote’s fuel being sold at N898 per litre.
However, Dangote Refinery pointed to rising crude oil prices on the global market as the main driver of its petrol pricing.
Commenting on the situation, Idoko urged the government to step in by adjusting the foreign exchange (FX) rate to stabilize petrol prices.
“For instance, you can say, you are using N1,000 as an exchange rate for this dollar deal, for the locally refined petroleum products. And like that, you will see a significant drop in the price,” Idoko stated.
He explained that the current prices reflect the impact of both the naira’s weakness and international crude oil prices, emphasizing the need for government intervention.
“But if the government intervenes by way of naira sales and pegging the dollar exchange rate for crude transactions at a reasonably low rate, you will see an improvement,” he added.
“This is different from paying money as a subsidy. You are only just putting mechanisms in place to ensure the product is cheap,” Idoko concluded.
