Oil marketers reveal NNPC behind fuel scarcity
The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Debo Ahmed, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has failed to fulfil demands for payment made to receive Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
IPMAN said NNPC doesn’t have PMS, also known as petrol, to supply oil marketers, as a result, the country is experiencing fuel scarcity, he revealed in a report by The Nation on Monday
According to Ahmed, NNPC has received cash payments from IPMAN members for loading tickets, but NNPC is unable to provide the products as demanded by oil marketers.
He absolved oil marketers of the blame for the fuel scarcity while revealing the distribution method, “NNPCL, being the sole importer of PMS to the country, supplies the products to marketers – MOMAN, DAPPMAN and IPMAN – for onward sales to the public at a regulated price
MOMAN is given their allocation on credit to their depots and to their stations for onward sales to the public.
“DAPPMAN also buys from NNPCL to their depots and sells to public through their filling stations and sells to IPMAN members at government regulated price
Ahmed also stated that due to the lack of fuel at NNPC’s depots, 21 of which are moribund, oil marketers have to depend on private depots that have refused to sell at a government-agreed price, hence, the rise in the cost of fuel
He disclosed that out of the oil marketers in Nigeria, IPMAN is the most vulnerable because they have to pay cash before they are provided with the product
In this distribution of PMS value chain IPMAN is the weakest link among the marketers because they buy with cash, which most of the time takes longer days to get the products, they are directed to private depots to get their products at the whim and caprices of private depot owners.
“IPMAN implores NNPC to flood the market with more fuel to ward off this fuel scarcity as the only immediate measure and the reactivating of the refineries and the depots as a long time measure to stop importation to refining locally to ease price tension in the emerging subsidy removal
