As the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) floods the nation’s depots with petrol, the oil marketing companies have begun to develop a series of incentives to lure customers and boost sales, THISDAY reports.

Exactly six months after the NNPC assumed the status of sole importer of petrol in October 2017, the corporation has finally normalised the supply of the product, with depot owners now selling at the official ex-depot price. The corporation’s inability to bridge the supply gap created by the refusal of the private marketers to import petrol, had led to a fuel crisis, which marred the Christmas celebration and lingered into the first quarter of 2018.

But the NNPC’s recent success was achieved at a great cost to the country as the corporation’s under-recovery, which is the loss incurred by selling the imported product at official prices of N133 per litre at the depots and N145 at the pumps, had hit N1.4 trillion.

Investigations at the weekend showed that the corporation has flooded the whole country with petrol, forcing the marketers to devise various kinds of incentives to woo customers and prevent a glut in the market. A market survey conducted at the weekend showed that petrol was available in 18 depots in Lagos.

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