Sudden Increase in price of Kerosene

The official price of ‘household kerosene’ recently went
up in Nigeria from N50 per litre to N83 per litre. The
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
(PPPRA) in its revised pricing template stated that the
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] will
henceforth sell House Hold Kerosene (HHK) at N83per
litre. Even when the official price was N50/litre, only
NNPC retail outlets sold it at that price. Long queues
for kerosene at the official price were the order of the
day at NNPC stations where people, mostly those who
will turn around and resell it at a higher price, spent
days on end queuing for the product. They also had to
bribe the petrol station attendants. Most other users
regularly bought it for up to N150 per litre from
neighbourhood retailers.
According to PPPRA, the new open market price
(EOMP) of the commodity for NNPC retail outlets will
be N69.9/litre. The landing cost is N55.6/litre; the ex-
depot price is N73/litre while the retail price is now
N83/litre. This hike in kerosene prices is not
unconnected to the recent stoppage of subsidy
payment to marketers. As from January 1, government
had stopped paying subsidy to oil marketers for the
importation of petrol and household kerosene 1 due to
the fall in crude oil prices in the international market.