The First batch of 27 million litres of petroleum imported by an independent marketer has arrived the country, putting an end to a downstream monopoly market by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.
The vessel earlier billed to arrive since last week, but was held down off Lome waters due to adverse weather, birthed at Ijegun-Egba on Wednesday following the official end to subsidies by President Bola Tinubu on May 29.
This was as foreign exchange rose from N745 to one dollar three weeks ago, to N845 as of Tuesday, and crude price rising to $80 per barrel as of Wednesday.
Until now, state oil firm NNPCL had a monopoly on the downstream market as it singlehanded imported petrol consumed in the country, and had dictated prices.
Since the end of subsidies which cost the country about N12tn, prices of petrol had risen from an average of between N180/N200 per litre, to N614 per litre as of Tuesday.