Petrol Marketers: We Raised Petrol Prices to Keep Members’ Businesses Afloat

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has stated that its members further increased the prices of petrol at the pumps in Nigeria so as to remain afloat, citing the need to align with the reality of the current dynamics in the market.

Last Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the independent marketers raised the price of the fuel from between N488 to N557 the product previously sold, to N558 in Lagos to above N617 in many parts of the country.

But the National President of IPMAN, Chinedu Okoronkwo, who spoke on Channels Television, explained that members of the association were going out of business due to the removal of subsidy on petrol.

He maintained that the petrol marketers have been unable to raise money to load from depots and the NNPC with the previous rate, given the new foreign exchange and crude price dynamics.

“You need to be in business. If you go back, you will go and buy at a new price. Assuming you are selling N520, then there is a sudden change from where you are getting it, you have to still be in business.

“Some of my members have got to the level of putting products in their tankers, all of a sudden, there was an information that the price had changed. They didn’t load them again. Some are even battling now to see how they can load on that old price and now the new price,” he explained.

The IPMAN boss said the timing of the price increment was not the issue but that the government must work on how to mitigate the effect of the price adjustment and ease the pressure on the dollar.

Okoronkwo also called on the government to develop infrastructure for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and consult with industry players in the oil and gas sector on how other alternative energy sources can be deployed.

In his remarks, a former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Peter Esele, accused the petrol marketers of taking advantage of the situation to make extra profit.