KEY POINTS
- Nigeria’s FCCPC says petrol prices have barely fallen despite a sharp crude oil drop.
- Global crude sits near $73 a barrel, but petrol still sells around N1,200.
- The commission has threatened to investigate and sanction marketers found exploiting Nigerian consumers.
Nigeria’s consumer watchdog has accused fuel marketers of pocketing the gains from falling oil prices instead of passing them to drivers. The warning sets up a fresh clash in the deregulated petrol market.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission issued the alert on Sunday. It said its monitoring of the downstream sector showed only token price cuts that do not match the steep drop in crude.
Global crude has fallen to about $73 a barrel. That follows a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route.
Prices had spiked to about $120 a barrel during the Gulf tensions of April and May. Marketers raised pump prices fast then, with petrol hitting N1,350 to N1,500 a litre and diesel near N2,000.
Crude has since returned to February levels. Petrol has not. The fuel still sells for about N1,200 a litre nationwide, while some local refiners quote ex-depot prices of N1,025 to N1,075.
The watchdog draws a line
FCCPC chief executive Tunji Bello was blunt about the asymmetry. He said dealers raise prices the moment crude climbs but drag their feet when it falls.
“Competitive markets must work fairly in both directions,” Bello said. He stressed that the commission does not set fuel prices in a deregulated market.
Its power lies elsewhere. Under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, the agency can investigate and punish anti-competitive conduct and consumer exploitation.
Bello warned that deregulation is no shield for profiteering. He said the commission will act where credible evidence shows consumers are being exploited, and urged Nigerians to report suspect pricing.
Marketers push back
The industry tells a different story. Marketers and refiners say several costs sit between the crude price and the pump, and they do not move overnight.
Clement Isong, who leads the major marketers’ association MEMAN, said operators bought stock at higher prices and cannot cut sharply without taking losses. He said prices are easing, but slowly.
Refiners point to the naira. Eche Idoko of the refiners’ body CORAN called the market dollar-driven, noting that a weak currency can wipe out the benefit of cheaper crude.
The numbers give the watchdog some ground. Industry data put the petrol import landing cost at about N983.92 a litre, below the Dangote refinery’s N1,125 gantry price. Consumer groups want pump prices under N1,000.
The standoff now turns on enforcement. The FCCPC has threatened sanctions but named no targets, and marketers insist their pricing is commercial, not predatory. Whether pump prices fall in the coming weeks will show who was reading the market right.
