Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly referred to as petrol will be sold for N160 - N163 in Rivers State.
Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Rivers State Chapter, Dr. Joseph Obele made the disclosure in a live radio programme monitored by City News in Port Harcourt.
He said IPMAN in Rivers State has directed all it's members to sell PMS between N160 - N163 per litre.
IPMANS's directive follows the announcement by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) that the price of petrol had increased and will took effect from the 2nd of September, 2020.
"There was an upward review of N8 increase in the cost price of petrol from N139. 52 per litre to N147.52 per litre which is now our buying rate. At our emergency congress yesterday, we directed all our members of IPMAN to sell to the general public from 160 to 163 Naira which is an increase of 13 Naira," he said.
Dr. Obele explained that the increase in the price of PMS was due to the removal of fuel subsidy by the government and the fact that the Nigerian government is in financial distress.
He also blamed the nation's energy woes on inability to effectively manage the local refineries.
He said: "We send the crude oil to Amsterdam to be refined. We pay for the vessels to transport the raw materials to them, we pay Amsterdam to refine our crude oil and also pay for the vessels to transport the refined product back to us.
"It will shock you that the refinery we send our crude oil to is a state owned refinery by the Dutch government. Nigeria has 4 refineries which produced about 450 barrels of petrol in a day. Now, we cannot even boast of producing one litre of petrol in Nigeria because we are solely relying on importation.
"The first refinery in Nigeria stopped working about 21 years ago and the last one stopped working about 3 or 4 years ago. This is why the price of petrol has increased drastically”.
