Nearly 4,900 petrol stations have been shut down across the country due to fluctuating fuel prices, it was revealed.
This was revealed by the president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, in an interview.
He stated that over 70 percent of its 7,000 retail outlets have been shut down due to unsustainable operating conditions.
The decision by the independent marketers to close their businesses was attributed to rising financial losses linked to the unpredictable and volatile costs set by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and fuel importers.
For instance, the Dangote refinery has altered petrol prices approximately six times in 2025 alone, according to a report by The Punch on Thursday.
The refinery revised petrol prices six times between January and April 2025, starting at N950 per litre and subsequently reducing to N835, the report stated.
This situation has compelled oil marketers to reduce their purchases of petroleum products, with as many as three or more marketers now pooling resources to afford a single truckload of fuel.
Conversely, those without the necessary financial capital have had to close their businesses.
A cold war has been ongoing between the 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki-based Dangote refinery and fuel-importing marketers since President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy two years ago.
Mr Gillis-Harry 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 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 indicated that to remain operational, many dealers have had to procure fuel from alternative suppliers offering “soft landing” deals to cushion market shocks and facilitate recovery.
“That situation has forced us to source products from those who can give us a soft landing, and then we can be able to recover and compete, because if someone knows that there are products and he is going to buy and do his business, there is no need to stay on a queue for fuel.
“So this is why we came out to cry about this price fluctuation, we can’t tell what the reason is from our refining giant. It is difficult to understand, and we called on the authorities to wade into it quickly because we had foreseen a situation where there may not be any liquidity to stock or restock products. And that would bring scarcity and a hike in price,” he said.
