By Oluwatosin Maliki
On Sunday, oil marketers said that the weakness of the naira, against the United States dollar this past few months, in addition to the rise in the cost of crude oil, might as a result lead to a hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
Recall, that Quest Times reported on Thursday that the naira weakened to N950/dollar as forex scarcity worsened.
The report stated that the naira fell further against the dollar the preceding day (Wednesday), after closing at 950/$ at the parallel market.
Similarly, Bureau de Change operators noted that the naira, which earlier closed at 930/$ at the close of operations on Tuesday, was bought and sold at 935/$ and 950/$ on Wednesday.
Dealers in the downstream oil sector explained that the cost of crude oil and the exchange rate of the dollar accounted for over 80 per cent of the cost of PMS.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose to $94/barrel on Sunday, the highest figure in 2023. Oil had started the year at about $82/barrel, dipped to $70/barrel in June, but traded above $92/barrel in the past week.
Although, the Federal Government and its Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had insisted that subsidy on petrol had ended, following the deregulation of the downstream oil sector, operators insisted on Sunday that the government was implementing quasi-subsidy.
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