Only 12 states sold petrol at or below official pump price in August as average price rose 0.3 percent from previous month to N145.5 per litre across the federation.
The official pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) commonly referred to as petrol is N145 per litre but the commodity sells slightly above and below benchmark across the country.
While average price of petrol rose on a monthly basis by the most since April, on a yearly basis the price eased for the 9th straight month by 1 percent, according to Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Tuesday.
The report shows that the product was most expensive in two of the oil producing states in the Niger Delta- Bayelsa and Cross River.
Anambra state noted a 0.5 percent decline, the most among the states and the Federal Capital Territory, while price surged most in Kogi, by 2.62 percent.
States that sold at or less than the official pump price include Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Edo, Ekiti, Kaduna, Katsina, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Rivers, Yobe and Zamfara.
The states with the least price were Kaduna (N144.68 per litre) and Zamfara (N144.33 per litre) where petrol has remained below benchmark price since March, and Katsina (N142.50 per litre).
Conversely, petrol was most expensive in Bayelsa (N146.78 per litre), Cross River (N146.76 per litre) and Kogi (N146.75 per litre)
Across zones, petrol was cheapest in the North West averaging N144.75 per litre ( highest in Sokoto and lowest in Kastina), followed by South West where it sold at N145.27 per litre on the average (Highest in Oyo and lowest in Lagos, Osun and Ogun).
The commodity was sold for N145.62 per litre in South South (Highest in Bayelsa and lowest in Rivers) and N145.69 per litre in the North East (Highest in Borno and lowest in Bauchi).
In the North Central, petrol averaged N145.82 per litre (highest in Kogi and lowest in Benue) while in the South East it sold for N145.87 per litre (highest in Abia and lowest in Anambra).
