The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has once again increased the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N855 per litre on Tuesday to N897 on Wednesday.
The increase was after Aliko Dangote, the Chairman of Dangote Refinery, announced the commencement of petrol production at its refinery.
The continuous increase in pump prices has raised concerns among Nigerians despite the initial excitement from the refinery announcement.
According to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the 650,000 barrels per day refinery will supply 25 million litres of petrol to the Nigerian market daily this September.
This, NMDPRA said will increase to 30 million litres per day in October.
However, the promise of increased fuel supply has not yet eased the situation on the ground.
Tunde Ayeni, a commercial bus driver at an NNPC station in Ikoyi, said “I have been in the queue since 6 a.m. waiting for them to start selling, but we just realised that the pump price has been changed to N897. This is terrible, and yet they still haven’t started selling the product.”
The price hike comes as NNPC continues to struggle with sustaining regular fuel supply.
On Sunday, the company warned that its ability to maintain steady distribution across the country was under threat due to financial strain.
NNPC cited rising supply costs as the cause of its difficulties in keeping up with demand.
