Nigerians to pay higher petrol prices as Brent crosses $95

Nigerian motorists are bracing for another round of pump-price increases after Brent crude pushed above $95 a barrel this week, its highest level since late July, as fighting around the Strait of Hormuz threatens to choke off a key artery of global oil supply.

The benchmark price jumped roughly 5 percent in a single session after U.S. forces struck Iranian targets near the strait, an action said to be in retaliation for Iranian attempts to mine the waterway and a strike on an American base. Iran claimed to have hit back at U.S. positions in the region, while tankers near Oman reported being struck by unidentified projectiles. Traders are factoring in the risk that a prolonged standoff could disrupt some of the roughly 17 million barrels a day that typically flow through the corridor.

The rally is already showing up at Nigerian fuel depots. Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the 650,000-barrel-a-day plant that has reshaped the country’s downstream market since coming online, lifted its gantry price for premium motor spirit to N1,265 a litre on August 29, an increase of N65 from the prior level.

Independent marketers have pushed even higher: some depots in Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri were quoting as much as N1,290 to N1,400 a litre this week, according to industry trackers, with retail pump prices in cities like Kaduna already topping N1,330.

Dangote has pointed to a familiar culprit — heavy reliance on imported fuel, which the refinery says still accounted for more than 40 percent of Nigeria’s petrol supply in July even though its own capacity exceeds domestic demand.