Nigeria’s government directed petroleum marketers on Monday to immediately lower pump prices for petrol and other fuel products, saying companies had not passed on the benefit of a recent drop in global crude oil prices to consumers.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Heineken Lokpobiri issued the directive at an industry forum in Abuja, telling marketers they must not use the country’s deregulated fuel market to extract excess profits.
He said the easing of tensions between the United States and Iran had pushed global crude prices lower, a shift that should have already been reflected at the pump. Crude has fallen to roughly $72 a barrel from a peak near $120 reached during the conflict.
Separately, Nigeria’s competition regulator, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, said its review of pricing across refiners, depots and retail outlets found only marginal cuts that did not match the scale of the drop in crude prices. The regulator’s chief executive, Tunji Bello, said the commission does not set fuel prices in the deregulated market but would investigate evidence of anti-competitive conduct or exploitative pricing.
Marketers and refiners attributed the slow pass-through to leftover high-cost inventory, currency pressures and other expenses beyond crude costs. The state oil company, NNPC, has cut its pump price twice in the past week for a combined reduction of 125 naira a litre, while Dangote Refinery lowered its wholesale petrol price to 1,125 naira a litre from 1,175 naira.
Retail petrol prices in the capital, Abuja, were still running between 1,241 and 1,305 naira a litre as of last week, above the roughly 900 naira a litre consumers paid before the conflict-driven spike.
