The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has reduced the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, by N25 per litre following a decline in international crude oil prices.
The refinery reduced its petrol gantry price from N1,350 to N1,325 per litre, according to a market survey conducted on Monday.
The latest adjustment represents a 1.85 per cent reduction and comes just nine days after the refinery increased its petrol price by N85, from N1,265 to N1,350 per litre.
The latest reduction followed a decline in global crude oil benchmarks, with Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate falling by more than three per cent during Monday’s trading.
At the time of the report, Brent crude was quoted at about $100.50 per barrel, while WTI stood at approximately $92.43 per barrel.
The development is expected to put pressure on petrol marketers and other refiners to review their prices, although the extent to which the reduction will be reflected in retail pump prices will depend on distribution, logistics and other downstream market factors.
The Dangote refinery’s previous price increase, which took effect on September 12, followed a rise in international crude prices, with Brent crude trading above $104 per barrel. The PUNCH had reported that the N85 increase took the refinery’s gantry price to N1,350 per litre, its highest at the time since the refinery commenced operations.
The latest adjustment highlights the sensitivity of domestic refined petroleum prices to movements in the international crude oil market.
Reuters reported that Brent crude fell 3.4 per cent to $100.34 per barrel on Sunday, while WTI declined by 4.51 per cent to $95.78, amid renewed hopes of diplomatic engagement between the United States and Iran and signs of recovery in Saudi oil exports.
The Dangote refinery, with a stated refining capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, has increasingly become a major source of petrol supply to the Nigerian market as the country seeks to reduce dependence on imported refined petroleum products.
