Petrol pump price at N145 not profitable – Marketers

Private oil marketers have urged the Federal Government to enable them to access foreign exchange at a special rate for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol.
According to them, selling the product at N145 per litre is no longer feasible with the current exchange rate.
The marketers stopped fuel importation last year due to a shortage of foreign exchange and an increase in crude prices, which, they said had made it unprofitable to import petrol and sell same at N145 per litre.
An official of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said that the government through the Central Bank of Nigeria should have intervened by providing foreign exchange at a special rate, solely for the PMS importation, for both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and private importers.
IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Mike Osatuyi, told the Punch that; “The problem is that the importation of petrol is being handled almost 100 percent by the NNPC as private importers have backed out.
“When the crude price hit $59 per barrel, we could not sell petrol again at N145 per litre if we were importing on our own. It is only the government (NNPC) that is importing and can warehouse the subsidy.”
Osatuyi said, “Right now, the landing cost of the PMS is N154. If you are importing at N305 to the dollar, by the time you add bank charges, it comes to N307 to the dollar. If you apply that to the current crude price, the landing cost is N154-N155. By the time you add all the margins, the pump price is about N160-N167.
“Before private importers can resume importation, the exchange rate to a dollar must be N250 and we can sell at the price of N145 per litre.”