Several marketers in Port Harcourt pushed their depot prices to N1,900 per liter on Friday, even as some filling stations in Lagos continued to sell below that level. The split tells the real story: a government price intervention reaching one city is not reaching the rest of the country.
NIPCO led the Port Harcourt increases, raising its Premium Motor Spirit price by N170 per liter to N1,900 from N1,730. Six other depots moved in the same direction, though by a smaller margin.
African Terminal, Ascon, Eterna, Gulf Treasure, Ibachem, and Ibeto all raised their Port Harcourt depot prices to N1,900 per liter from N1,750 each. That is a N150 jump at six depots on a single day.
Duport and Integrated increased their prices to N1,806 per litre from N1,750, an increase of N56 per litre. Both remain below the N1,900 mark but are trending in the same direction.
In Lagos, Masters raised its depot price to N1,350 per liter from N1,303, Matrix moved to N1,360 from N1,330, while Sigmund, T.S.L., and NIPCO each raised their prices to N1,350 from N1,300 and N1,326, respectively. Lagos depot prices, while up, remain more than N500 below Port Harcourt levels.
In Calabar, Matrix raised its depot price to N1,370 per liter from N1,315. Warri also recorded increases, with multiple operators adjusting upward, continuing a pattern of southward price pressure that has persisted across several trading sessions.
Brent crude climbed to $104.50 per barrel from $104.28, while WTI rose to $91.73 from $91.49 on the same day. The international crude movement gave marketers a rationale, but analysts say that alone does not explain the scale of the domestic increases.
Olatide Jeremiah, Chief Executive Officer of Petroleumprice.ng, said the downstream sector would, in his view, “continue to respond or react to developments at the global oil market.” Yet the Vanguard price review noted that mixed movements across international benchmarks mean domestic depot increases should not be attributed solely to that day’s crude oil gains. Product replacement costs, supply logistics, and individual marketer decisions all play a role in determining the final ex-depot figure that operators pass on to filling stations.
At the retail level, NNPC Limited sold petrol at N1,360 per liter at its filling stations in Lagos and surrounding areas. That figure is below what many Port Harcourt depots charged wholesale on the same day, meaning retail consumers in the south-south paid more for fuel than Lagos motorists paid at the pump.
MRS Oil Nigeria sold petrol at N1,338 per liter, while 11 Plc sold at N1,338.80. Independent marketers charged between N1,368 and N1,400 per liter, depending on location.
Diesel prices also hit N1,900 per liter in Warri, where Rain Oil and Matrix raised their Automotive Gas Oil prices by N180 from N1,720. That level puts diesel and petrol at parity in one of Nigeria’s key commercial corridors.
In Port Harcourt, Dangote increased its diesel price to N1,720 per liter from N1,702, while Masters raised its price to N1,825 from N1,788. Diesel prices across the south are climbing toward the same ceiling petrol has already reached in Port Harcourt.
For manufacturers and transport operators who run on diesel, the combination of higher fuel costs across both products creates compounding pressure on margins. On the international refined products side, gasoline declined to $3.293 from $3.316, while heating oil dropped to $4.724 from $4.883. The softening in global refined products did not translate into relief at Nigerian depots on Friday, a disconnect that industry observers say reflects the dominance of local logistics and foreign exchange costs over benchmark pricing signals.
The Friday price surge at Port Harcourt depots came despite NNPC introducing a price-relief measure for consumers, a tension that points to the limits of retail-level interventions when depot prices are moving in the opposite direction. Petrol prices at N1,900 per liter in Port Harcourt remain the headline figure the government’s discount scheme has not addressed.
