The importation permits of six petrol depots in the country have been suspended by the Department of Petroleum Resources for selling the Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise called petrol above the official depot price of N77.66 per litre.
Citing its powers under the Petroleum Control Act of 1967 and the Petroleum Act of 1969 (as amended), the agency in a circular with reference number PI/PAD/25/Vol.1/360 of December 11, 2015, stated that the importation permit of the six depots had been suspended for three months for selling PMS above the stipulated official price of N77.66.
The affected depots are: Folawiyo Petroleum, Lagos; Samon Petroleum, Calabar; Fynefield Petroleum, Calabar; Staillonaire Petroleum, Lagos; Sahara Petroleum, Lagos; Capital Oil, Lagos.
According to the statement by the DPR, the suspended depots would in addition to the six-month suspension also pay a fine of N10 million each.
According to DPR, Folawiyo was sanctioned for allowing Sahara Petroleum to use its depot to breach the stipulated price, while the level of involvement of Capital Oil is still not clear, National Daily gathered.
As gathered, PPPRA has been advised to revoke the companies’ allocation, while PPMC has been informed not to allocate PMS to the erring depots during their period of suspension.
Independent marketers and depot owners have defied the threat by the NNPC to engage the Department of State Services (DSS) and Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a renewed effort to arrest diversion of petroleum products by some unscrupulous marketers.
National Daily gathered that despite the threat, the marketers still divert petrol allocated to them by the PPMC at official ex-depot price of N77.60 and sell to other marketers at between N115.50 and N118 per litre.
It was discovered that marketers with NNPC tickets buy the product at N77.60 per litre, but instead of loading the product to their various filling stations, they hawk the tickets to other marketers to marketers who do not have direct allocation from the NNPC.