Petrol Landing Cost Rises To N870, Surpasses Dangote’s Price

The landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) has risen to an average of N870 per litre, according to reports from the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN).

On April 28, the landing cost stood at N872 per litre, and slightly decreased to N868 by April 29. Just days earlier, on April 23, it averaged N859 per litre—still above the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s announced ex-depot price of N835 per litre.

This development poses a challenge for fuel importers and marketers, as rising landing costs are squeezing their profit margins. With import prices now surpassing locally refined rates, selling imported petrol at competitive, profitable prices has become increasingly difficult.

As of Thursday, petroleumprice.ng reported that Dangote was selling petrol at N840 per litre—the same rate as Matrix (Lagos) and Rainoil. Meanwhile, Pinnacle, Mao, Sahara, and AA Rano priced it at N889, while Aiteo and Aipec offered it at N838.

First Fortune priced petrol at N868 per litre; Sigmund at N875; Liquid Bulk at N870; Matrix (Warri) at N870; and NIPCO Lagos at N842.

Our correspondent noted that petrol prices vary depending on the depot location. Prices tend to be lower in Lagos, while depots in the South-South region offer higher rates due to increased logistics costs.

In an interview, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, said business has slowed significantly, attributing the downturn to persistent and unpredictable fluctuations in fuel prices.

“Business has been very slow, with the up and down price of PMS from arbitrary changes that are not effectively managed by the market forces,” he said.

Nevertheless, the PETROAN president said he and his members were trying to provide energy access to Nigerians despite the challenges.

“Regardless of how things are, we have to do business and keep Nigeria’s economy growing. That’s our covenant with Nigeria. That’s PETROAN’s covenant,” he stated.

Gillis-Harry maintained that the government is doing its best, “and I think that we will get to the point where business will be beneficial to the consumers and those of us in the business.”

Meanwhile, SGR filling stations along the Sagamu-Benin and Lagos-Ibadan Expressways in Ogun State have reduced the price of petrol to N855 per litre—underpricing Dangote’s partners. With more than six stations in the area, SGR is currently offering one of the lowest PMS rates in the region.

In Ogun State, other stations are selling at higher rates, with MRS pricing petrol at N890 and Heyden at N885 as of Thursday. This pricing trend follows a series of reductions from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery after the Federal Government initiated a naira-for-crude oil exchange agreement with the facility.

However, petroleum importers and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) have raised concerns that the price cuts are undermining their operations. Some traders told The PUNCH that in order to stay competitive and minimize losses, they’ve been forced to sell fuel below their landing costs.

Earlier, when the naira-for-crude arrangement was temporarily suspended in March and Dangote halted naira-based sales, petrol prices surged from N860 to as high as N950 per litre. But following the Federal Government’s directive to resume and sustain the deal indefinitely, Dangote slashed petrol prices to below N900 per litre.

Despite these reductions, a report by S&P Global noted that Dangote’s pricing for refined products has become an incentive for fuel imports into Nigeria. The report explained that the refinery’s price cuts have not matched the pace of the global decline in oil prices, and its gantry prices remain high enough to make imports attractive.

“Incentives to ship products to West Africa have also come from the pricing at Nigeria’s Dangote refinery. While flat prices have been driven down massively amid falling crude prices, Dangote has not lowered gantry prices for truck volumes significantly.

“Between April 1 and April 9, the Eurobob M1 swap fell from $734.25 per metric tonne to $603/MT, a 17.9 per cent fall, before recovering somewhat. But over the same period, Dangote’s truck price at the gantry dropped just 1.7 per cent from N880/litre to N865/litre (and later N835).

“This has encouraged a flood of products to West Africa, where high domestic prices have led marketers to import from international traders in greater volumes,” the report said.