Escalating Energy Prices: Oil, Gas Marketers Kick Against ‘Dollarisation’ of NPA, NIMASA Charges

•Say with 30% interest rate, members may be jailed by banks soon

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) yesterday decried the continued “dollarisation” of the Nigerian economy, including the collection of charges from operators by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

Briefing the press on the harsh economic conditions that marketers have recently been subjected to, the National President of NOGASA, Mr Benneth Korie, stated that aside rising diesel prices and bad roads, there was no sense in carrying out transactions in dollars within Nigeria.

Among other problems, oil and gas marketers have always lamented that when mother vessels bring in refined products to Lagos, daughter vessels that are chartered to discharge from the bigger containers are charged in dollars, while  the NPA also takes its docking charges in dollars.

Korie argued that to ameliorate the energy crisis, when Dangote refinery and the federal government refinery in Port Harcourt come on stream, crude oil must be sold in naira, even though the authorities may then still decide to peg it against the dollar.

He argued it was no longer tenable to buy petrol per litre for N620 and then use diesel of N1,700 per litre to transport it to various parts of the country.

The group therefore urged the federal government to peg the prices of diesel, even if temporarily, warning that if the federal government fails to address the challenges, the hostile business environment will naturally cause businesses done by marketers to fold up.

According to him, the heavens will not fall if the federal government sells diesel sells diesel for N650/litre, just like what currently applies to petrol pump pricing.

He argued that it was an anomaly for NPA and NIMASA to collect their payments in dollars, which he said is further aggravating the current FX challenge and urged the government to intervene.

“Another one that looks funny to us is that NIMASA is in Nigeria, NPA is in Nigeria and somebody is coming out to say, we are collecting dollars because our operations are in dollars.

“ You are government, you can go to the Central Bank of Nigeria  (CBN) and pay for your operations, but allow people to pay naira in Nigeria. You are in this country and you must trade in Naira.

“They should remove Naira transactions from NIMASA and NPA. They should stop collecting dollars from Nigerians for any service. This is very important.

“If you are buying crude oil from the government you pay in dollar, so how much  are you going to sell? “If we have one price from the government, then when you are buying crude oil from the government, you multiply it by the government rate and then you convert to Naira and begin to sell to Nigeria in Naira,” he maintained.

Korie stated that many members of the association may soon be jailed by the commercial banks, with interest rate at 30 per cent coupled with the current economic situation.

“The bank interest is too high. Today, if you are going to buy one truck of PMS, you are going to spend N30 million and then you will go to bank to get that money at 30 per cent, all in the name of this inflation.

“If care is not taken, we also will withdraw our services because there’s no way out. If we continue this way, banks will jail all of us one by one. Filling stations are closing down, and 70 per cent of them are out of business, “ he lamented.

Korie advocated that government should reintroduce and strengthen the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) to enable marketers to recoup and reinvest their funds.

He also urged the government to fix the roads in the country in order to reduce the wear and tear of the trucks, urging the government to declare a state of emergency on the refineries.

The NOGASA president said although the organisation supported the removal of subsidy, it is obvious that the decision is not working the way it ought to.

While calling for a stakeholders’ meeting, Korie said that the ‘dollarisation’ of the economy was seriously affecting the businesses of NOGASA members. “This nonsense of dollars will have to stop. Stay away from the dollar and everything will go back to normal,” he maintained.