Global crude prices retreated after a sharp rally pushed Brent above 100 dollars a barrel earlier in the week, offering some relief to a market rattled by Middle East supply risks and rising pump prices in Nigeria.
Brent crude fell 3 percent to 96 dollars a barrel while West Texas Intermediate dropped 2.58 percent to 89.81 dollars, a day after both benchmarks surged following attacks by Houthi militants on Saudi linked oil tankers that heightened fears over global supply security. Some relief came after OPEC members including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and others pledged to raise their combined September production target by 188,000 barrels per day.
In Nigeria, the volatility has kept petrol prices elevated, with Dangote Refinery’s gantry price for premium motor spirit now at 1,215 naira per litre and consumers paying between 1,200 and 1,300 naira per litre in Lagos and other major cities after marketers raised prices last week. Former Major Energies Marketers Association Chairman Tunji Oyebanji said Nigerians are now exposed to global price swings after years of subsidy protection, noting that without deregulation the government would have been absorbing an unsustainable burden at current global prices. He said petrol prices had actually been trending downward before the latest Middle East tensions, having fallen to around 1,100 naira before the renewed spike, and urged government to consider targeted relief such as transport or education subsidies rather than reintroducing broad fuel subsidies, while warning that pump prices could climb further if crude stays elevated.
A member of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, speaking anonymously, alleged that restricted access to import permits was helping keep prices elevated, claiming the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has continued issuing import permits to the same six firms across multiple quarters this year on the presidency’s direction, a claim the regulator did not respond to when contacted. The source argued that only importers able to secure cheaper cargo than Dangote’s prices could offer competitive pricing, and called for wider distribution of import permits to increase competition and bring prices down.
