Independent petroleum marketers who are responsible nearly 70% of the nation's filling stations has revealed on Saturday, that the NNPC has not yet supplied them with petrol from the Dangote refinery.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, started loading Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery one week ago, but most filling stations across the country have not received it yet.
Mr. Abubakar Maigandi, the National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, when asked if the product is being received by most dealers from the $20bn Lekki-based plant, he responded saying "We are still waiting to start".
According to Niger Delta Connect, Last Sunday, NNPC officially began loading petrol at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
Earlier, the NNPC declared its intention to load 16.8 million litres of petrol from the plant, in contrast to the daily release of 25 million litres by the refinery.
Mr. Olufemi Soneye, NNPC's spokesperson, confirmed that more than 70 PMS trucks left the Dangote refinery last Sunday, which was the initial day for the oil to be released to the domestic market.
The NNPC has reportedly been obtaining products from the plant ever since, and has also urged major marketers to lift petrol based on their agreements with them.
However, it was revealed on Saturday that independent marketers were still unable to obtain Dangote petrol.
Meanwhile, the NNPC, which is currently the sole distributor of PMS from the Lagos-based refinery, did not provide any information on why IPMAN members were yet to get access to the product from the Dangote refinery.
According to Chief Ukadike Chinede, the National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, he mentioned that the association members are yet to receive petrol from the Dangote refinery.
When asked if the majority of filling stations, especially those managed by IPMAN members, have started receiving Dangote petrol, he replied, “No, we have not started getting Dangote fuel from NNPC. As of this time, we haven’t.
“The current situation is that NNPC is still serving us with their imported products. That’s what we are loading for now and they haven’t communicated to us about the issue of Dangote.
“I think what they (NNPC) did was to take Dangote fuel to their own (NNPC) retail outlets because there was no design for NNPC to give IPMAN products via trucks,” he added.
“But this time, it is only for NNPC mobilised trucks. We are still waiting for further directives and like I said in other interviews, we are willing buyers and what we are looking for is a willing seller.”
Speaking on why the cost of Dangote petrol is high, Mr. Ukadike said: “I heard that NNPC is selling at N776/litre to major marketers but they haven’t started selling to independent marketers.
“When you add logistics costs and other necessary things, you would understand why it still sells at the current price. However, when there is an adequate supply of petrol, the price will reduce. Also, the price of diesel is still high. Once the price of diesel goes down, the price of trucking will go down.”
According to Senior officials of some major oil marketing firms, they confirmed that they commenced the lifting of petrol from the Dangote refinery based on specific arrangements with NNPC.
Although, they mentioned the cost which they bought the product from NNPC was N766/litre, but could not tell the price at which the product was sold to NNPC by Dangote.
The official who pleaded anonymity said: “As I told you last week, the cost which NNPC sold to us is N766/litre. We paid NNPC, not Dangote and we lifted products based on the arrangement with NNPC. Dangote and NNPC know the price which they both agreed on, so they are in the best position to state that."
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