Oil marketers threaten FG over planned enforcement of N195/litre pump price

Following the federal government’s decision to clampdown on fuel stations selling above the agreed N195 per litre for petrol beginning from today, Monday, February 16, Independent marketers of the product have promised to resist the move by shutting down their various filling stations.

Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, security agencies and the downstream regulator had all agreed that petrol be sold at N195/litre.

However, independent marketers of the product have described the move as unacceptable due to the high ex-depot price of the commodity.

IPMAN’s National President, Debo Ahmed, explained that the approved ex-depot price of petrol was recently raised from N148/litre by the NNPCL to N172/litre, but depots hardly dispense the commodity at this cost.

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“If you are taking it further than 400 kilometres from the place of purchase, you are going to get the bridging claims or price equalisation. But if you are taking it within 120 kilometres or around that distance, you will get some little allowance to make you sell at a controlled price.

“But, the truth is that we don’t get the product at the controlled price of N172, which is why you see a lot of areas where they sell at higher prices.

“However, for MOMAN, because they get it at the controlled price, they take it from their depots to their stations and sell it at lower prices compared to independent marketers. Mind you, independent marketers control about 80 percent of retail outlets in Nigeria.”

This is likely to further prolong the petrol scarcity and queues in many parts of the country as independent marketers control about 80 per cent of filling stations nationwide.

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In Lagos, most of the outlets that sold the product on Saturday had long queues of desperate motorists, with some selling for between N280 and N350 per litre.

A similar situation was prevalent in Ogun State, where motorists struggled to get petrol from the few filling stations that had the product. Some stations on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway sold the product for between N320 and N380 per litre.

A desperate motorist, Nnamdi Goodman, claimed to have bought 10 litres for N7,000 on Airport Road in Lagos on Saturday.

“The situation is very serious now. I bought 10 litres of petrol from a black marketer on the Airport Road in Lagos on Saturday morning. That’s N700 per litre! I don’t think I can keep going like this, otherwise I will spend all my salary and savings on fuel alone,” he lamented.

Few outlets of the major oil marketers and the NNPCL that sold petrol on Saturday dispensed it at the approved N195/litre pump price. But many mega stations were not open for business due to lack of products to sell.