Over 4,900 petrol retail outlet owners have shut down their businesses, as thousands of independent marketers are currently scaling down operations, oil dealers in the downstream sector have said.
They attributed this to rising financial losses from unpredictable and volatile costs in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) sold by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and PMS importers.
This comes against the backdrop of frequent changes in the price of petrol by the refinery. The $20bn refinery has changed the price of petrol about six times this year. It reviewed petrol prices six times between January and April 2025, with an initial cost of N950 per litre, followed by gradual reductions to N835.
Findings by The PUNCH on Wednesday showed that marketers are lamenting the development. The situation has compelled marketers to scale down the volume of petroleum products they purchase, with as many as three or more marketers now pooling resources to afford a single truckload of fuel.
However, players without the required financial war chest have been forced to close their businesses.
Recall that the current administration, after the removal of subsidies on petrol, fully deregulated the downstream segment of the oil industry in October 2024, effectively placing pricing at the mercy of market forces.
This triggered a fierce battle for market share between the 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki-based refinery and fuel-importing marketers, as both sides strive to prevent the emergence of a monopoly and assert dominance in the newly liberalised market.
But this crisis, industry players say, is being driven by unregulated pricing, logistics bottlenecks, and the absence of clear market signals from dominant refiners, forcing independent petroleum marketers and retailers to either shut shop or adopt cost-sharing survival strategies.
They urgently called for robust economic buffers and more effective regulatory oversight to stabilise the market and protect their businesses from further shocks.
Confirming the dire situation, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria said over 70 per cent of its 7,000 retail outlets have closed shop due to unsustainable operating conditions. This implies that 4,900 retail stations owned by members have been closed.
PETROAN President, Billy Gillis-Harry, told our correspondent that the issue had worsened due to the lack of loans from commercial banks.
He said, “PETROAN has over 7,000 retail outlets, and over 70 per cent of those outlets are closed and are out of business today. And the reason is that we struggle to take loans from the bank. You buy products from a supplier and then before you can get to your filling station, prices have either increased or it has been dropped for no justifiable reason.
“And then they have a few filling stations that would be selling at lower prices, and of course, all traffic goes there, even if motorists have to stay in the queue for hours. So what happens, people are thrown out of business. So what choice do we have?”
He explained that to remain afloat, many dealers have had to source fuel from alternative suppliers offering “soft landing” deals to cushion the market shocks and allow recovery.
