IPMAN: 350 Tankers Loading Petrol Directly from NNPC to Clear Backlog

•Says ex-depot price has returned to N148.19

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said yesterday that to clear the current petrol scarcity nationwide, its members had begun to load as much as 350 trucks daily.

National President of the organisation, Chinedu Okoronkwo, in an interview on TVC, explained that the demand of the union to buy the product directly from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited  (NNPC) at the controlled price of N148.19 had been acceded to.

Okoronkwo stated that he had confirmed that Nigeria has at least 1.9 billion litres of petrol in stock , stressing that the meeting with the Department of State Service (DSS) and other stakeholders was helping to solve the problem and clear the queues.

According to him, the direct purchase from NNPC depots, rather than from third parties, has made fuel available in Abuja and some of others states and will eventually get normal in other affected states.

He stated that when the Port Harcourt refinery begins to work by the first quarter of 2022, and when Dangote comes on stream thereafter, there will be more improvement in Nigeria’s fuel supply chain.

Okoronkwo stated that the government was cognisant of the coming elections and how scarcity may affect voters if the problem is not sorted out soon and therefore needed to do everything to solve the prolonged shortages.

“The availability has been confirmed and it’s 1.9 billion litres. Now the NNPC has taken it upon itself to allow marketers purchase directly from them. And they have given us about 350 trailers and we believe that the problem will clear and it will continue in that manner,” Okoronkwo assured.

He added that the private depot owners who also own filling stations can now decide to use their stations as outlets, stressing that IPMAN was not against their business.

“There is a template of N148.19. The depots are just like warehouses of the NNPC because it’s the NNPC that brings in these products,” he added.

Furthermore, he stated that the business in Nigeria should be done in naira, rather than asking marketers to pay their charges in dollars.

“How can they (marketers) be doing business in their country and they are going to the black market to source for dollars for charges. Everything should be done in naira. Why should they be collecting dollars?,”he queried, maintaining that the practice is also putting pressure on the naira.

However, he noted that the concerns of the marketers have been escalated to the appropriate authorities with the hope that they will stop the practice and hasten the ease of doing business in the sector.

He stated that the third party bottlenecks had become a problem, explaining that with the improved sale by the NNPC and sale of products at N148.19 per litre, the problem was getting solved. “Many of our members closed shop because of this matter, but there is hope now of adequate supply,” he explained.

An Energy Expert, Bala Zaka, who also appeared on the programme, argued that to ensure energy security, Nigeria should not be planning based on importation of fuel.

 He noted that it was shameful that Nigeria had continued to tie consumption to products brought into the country, insisting that it was unsustainable.

Zaka maintained that the reasoning that Nigeria must continue to import should be jettisoned, arguing in the same vein that the government must not deregulate prices because it will kill businesses as marketers will embark on price racketeering.

He noted that for instance leaving the prices of diesel in the hands of marketers has increased the product to about  N800 in a country where many businesses depend on it to generate their electricity.

For months, petrol supply in the country has worsened, with 10 litres of the product sometimes selling for as high as N4,000 in the black market in various parts of the country.

For instance , in Abuja, since February this year, there has not been reliable supply, with the authorities giving various excuses ranging from the Salah festivities to flooding and recently blaming bad roads in Lagos.