Oil marketers plan to increase fuel price due to dollar shortage

Major oil marketers in Nigeria are considering increasing the pump price of petrol following the lingering scarcity of dollars and high exchange rate. According to the marketers, the exchange rate which went to as high as N400 to $1 last week, is seriously affecting them as they cannot continue to import fuel at such rate and sell at the Federal government stipulated price of N145 per liter. Many of them say if the N400 to $1 persists, they will be forced to increase the pump price.

The Federal government on May 11th liberalized the downstream sector of the petroleum industry and announced an increase in the pump prices of petrol from N86 and N86.50k per liter to between N145 per liter.