Financial Energy Review
There are strong indications that some independent petroleum products marketers are now making brisk businesses with the current scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as Petrol as they now prefer to smuggle the product across Nigerian borders making N6 Million margin for each truck load of Petrol.
Financial Energy Review learnt that the independent marketers who source their product from both NNPC depots and direct Supply from mother vessels now prefer to take the product to the Eastern part of the country where they make margin of N3 million per truck or they smuggle it to Nigerian borders to make N6 million per truck.
This new cross border deals by the independent have contributed partly to the scarcity of the product being experienced in Lagos and it’s environ.
Sources said that the independents are not satisfied with the margin they make in their various outlets within Lagos even when they sell at N250 per litre with a margin of N20 to N30 per litre with Ex-Depot price of N120 per litre.
The limited supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) depots and high exchange rate are not unconnected with the increasing cross-border sales by the independents.
They blamed the inadequate supply from NNPCl as the reason for taking the product across the border to make from one truck twice the profit of selling it at their outlet in Lagos.
According to them NNPC has limited facilities to supply both the major and independent marketers. So the few number of truck loads of PMS sourced and owned by the independents are sold across the border making twice the margin to keep them in business.
