Economy
PETROAN Begs FG to Establish Modular Refineries to Tackle Soot

By Adedapo Adesanya
The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has charged the federal government to ensure massive establishment of modular refineries across the country in order to put operators of illegal refineries out of business.
Chairman of PETROAN in Rivers State, Mr Francis Chile-Dimpka, explained that the establishment of modular refineries will stamp out adulterated products and also the issue of soot in Rivers State and its environs.
Mr Chile-Dimpka lamented that the issue of adulterated petroleum products and soot in the state was becoming overwhelming and the association will fight it to stand still.
He assured that the group will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that activities of kpofire were stamped out in the state.
“We are asking the federal government to ensure the massive establishment of modular refineries as this will put the kpo fire operators out of business.
“A lot of our children are professionals in this field already, if licenses are issued to this people, the modular refineries will work and soot will stop in the state.
“The 3P compliance team is still on surveillance and we will not relent, I repeat, we will not relent until operators of illegal refineries are totally smoked out. Because we can no longer continue to suffer this lingering issue of soot in Rivers state,” he said.
PETROAN also announced that measures were in place to ensure availability and even distribution of petroleum products in petrol outlets accross the State, during the yuletide season.
Mr Chile-Dimpka, however, said there may be a slight increase in cost of petroleum products as dealers are already experiencing an increase in depot prices.
‘’Our major assignment is to ensure availability and effective distribution of petroleum product and we are resolute in doing that.
“Our only worry is that prices of petroleum product have become unstable again. We are not even too sure of the procurement price. But so long as we are able to procure at the right price, we will sell at the right price.
“We are not expecting fuel scarcity, but there may be a slight price modulation of these products, because now the landing price has actually increased.
“Members of PETROAN are now selling at a very cut-throat edge to survive in the business. But if it goes beyond this, we will have no other option than to adjust our pump price so that we will remain in this business,” he disclosed.
Economy
Naira Falls to N1,500/$1 at Official Market, Appreciates to N1,570/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya
For the fourth consecutive trading session, the value of the Nigerian currency, the Naira, depreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday by 0.06 per cent or N89 Kobo to trade at N1,500.65/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,499.76/$1.
However, the Naira improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N8.19 to sell for N1,859.98/£1 compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N1,868.17/£1, but against the Euro, the local currency depreciated by N1.77 to settle at N1,555.18/€1, in contrast to midweek’s value of nN1,553.41/€1.
At the black market, the local currency gained N20 against the greenback during the session to quote at N1,570/$1 versus the N1,590/$1 it was traded a day earlier.
In the cryptocurrency market, it was majorly red on Thursday due to profit-taking as the US Securities and Exchange Commission took the first step toward allowing new crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the price of assets like Litecoin and Solana, as well as new ways of redeeming funds from existing crypto ETFs.
Meanwhile, companies took another step toward launching Ripple (XRP) ETFs in a further sign of the new crypto-friendlier administration at the agency.
Data indicated that Cardano (ADA) went down by 5.1 per cent to trade at $0.7169, Solana (SOL) slumped by 4.8 per cent to finish at $192.63, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 4.5 per cent to sell at $0.2509.
In addition, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 4.3 per cent to close at $2,713.47, Ripple (XRP) weakened by 3.6 per cent to end at $2.36, Litecoin (LTC) retreated by 1.9 per cent to close at $103.95, and Bitcoin (BTC) dipped by 0.5 per cent to sell for $97,344.70.
However, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.4 per cent to trade at $579.91, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
Economy
Buying Pressure Buoys NGX All-Share Index by 0.10%

By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed continued buying interest from offshore and domestic investors on Thursday, strengthening the market further by 0.10 per cent at the close of transactions.
Data revealed that the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 105.26 points yesterday to 105,430.15 points from the preceding day’s 105,324.89 points, and the market capitalisation expanded by N65 billion to close at N65.287 trillion compared with the previous session’s N65.222 trillion.
Business Post observed that the market participants showed interest in equities across the key sectors of the exchange because of their prospects to yield better value later.
The insurance counter gained 0.63 per cent, the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.18 per cent, the energy index improved by 0.13 per cent, the banking space jumped by 0.09 per cent, and the industrial goods industry grew by 0.04 per cent.
Eterna chalked up 9.88 per cent to trade at N33.35, Cadbury Nigeria also gained 9.88 per cent to finish at N26.70, Fidson increased its value by 9.77 per cent to N19.10, UPDC rose by 9.77 per cent to N2.36, and Deap Capital soared by 9.38 per cent to N1.05.
On the flip side, Tripple G lost 9.72 per cent to end at N2.23, Golden Breweries receded by 8.91 per cent to N7.87, Veritas Kapital slumped by 7.81 per cent to N1.18, Caverton dipped by 5.53 per cent to N2.05, and Regency Alliance slipped by 4.05 per cent to 71 Kobo.
When the bourse closed for the session, there were 33 price advancers and 23 price decliners, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Yesterday, investors bought and sold 537.2 million shares valued at N23.0 billion in 15,450 deals versus the 1.1 billion shares worth N28.8 billion traded in 15,080 deals on Wednesday, representing a rise in the number of deals by 2.45 per cent, and a decline in the trading volume and value by 49.19 per cent and 20.14 per cent, respectively.
Access Holdings led the activity log with 61.6 million stocks valued at N1.7 billion, Sterling Holdings exchanged 50.2 million equities for N296.2 million, Zenith Bank traded 40.5 million shares worth N2.0 billion, FBN Holdings sold 38.8 million equities valued at N1.3 billion, and UPDC transacted 23.6 million stocks worth N54.4 million.
Economy
Crude Oil Market Dips as Trump Reiterates US Plans to Boost Production

By Adedapo Adesanya
The crude oil market continued its downward movement on Thursday after the US President, Mr Donald Trump, repeated a pledge to raise his country’s oil production.
Consequently, the price of Brent crude futures fell by 32 cents or 0.4 per cent to $74.29 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude declined by 42 cents or 0.6 per cent to $70.61 per barrel.
President Trump repeated a pledge to boost US production in a bid to lower oil prices and ease consumer inflation. The US is already the biggest crude producer in the world.
This move unnerved traders a day after the country reported a much bigger-than-anticipated jump in crude stockpiles.
Market analysts have questioned whether US oil producers will be willing to pump more barrels in the current market especially with Trump’s tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports looming.
US government data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed domestic crude stockpiles rose by 8.7 million barrels last week on Wednesday.
Prices also drew support from new US sanctions against individuals and entities for facilitating shipments of Iranian oil to China.
This is as President Trump reimposed a maximum pressure campaign against Iran, but also said he was open to a deal with the oil producing country.
The US said the tankers onboarded Iranian crude from storage in China as part of a scheme involving Iran’s military, which stands to profit from the sale of the oil.
The sanctions block access of the individuals and entities to any of their assets in the US and prohibit US foreign assistance.
China is also not sitting on its oars, it responded to the US blanket tariff of 10 per cent on all Chinese imports with several measured retaliatory tariffs, including a 15 per cent levy on LNG and 10 per cent on crude oil imports from the US.
US crude exports could slide to 3.6 million barrels per day this year, especially if the Trump Administration enacts the tariffs on Mexico and Canada – currently on pause until March 4.
Amid these developments, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco has sharply raised prices for buyers in Asia.
-
Feature/OPED5 years ago
Davos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism8 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz2 years ago
Estranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking7 years ago
Sort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy2 years ago
Subsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking2 years ago
First Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports2 years ago
Highest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn
-
Technology4 years ago
How To Link Your MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile Lines to NIN