Downstream operators in the oil and gas sector have accused owners of fuel dispensing stations of shortchanging unsuspecting Nigerians by selling the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) for N145 while the total cost of ferrying the product from Apapa to various stations was in excess of N148 per litre.
Investigations by Shipping Position Daily last week revealed that some petroleum tank farms in Apapa were selling the petrol for N144 per litre, even as some of the operators lamented other miscellaneous expenses accrued due to bad access road in Apapa and other extortion by government agencies.
Speaking with our correspondent at Techno Oil Tank farm, a marketer, Onward Onwudiwe said that many fuel stations in the country are actually committing crime by adjusting their pump price in order to get profit from the product they have purchased.
Recall that the Federal Government in May, 2016 had pegged the price of petrol to N145 per litre from N86, putting an end to fuel subsidy to marketers, in what was described as partial liberalization of the sector. This has since forced fuel station owners to maintain the N145 per liter.
However, Onwudiwe told Shipping Position Daily last week that even the agents to the depot owners, popularly known as fuel vendors are no longer finding the business lucrative as a result of the little margin in the profits.
“At the depot now, PMS is sold for N144 so that the people at filling station would also make their margin. This is why some depots are committing crime by trying to tamper with products or adjust their meters, the fault is not from us because we are bulk sellers, however it is not all filling stations that do it, some of them are ready to do the business without minding how much they get”
“Some of the people we call agents, they add their own figure to the money because nobody wants to work for nothing”
“The profit margin is not there as it used to be, everybody is looking at the gain they get from fuel movement, some of the buyers look at the margin that they cannot get anything on it and this is why many people have jumped into other business instead. The business is no longer gainful or lucrative” he complained.
Onwudiwe told our correspondent that activities at the tank farms in Apapa are now at a very low ebb, because marketers are not getting product as usual, he said the profit margin is now very slim, so many of them are skeptical to import because after they have spent their money to import, they cannot make gain on it.
“The bad access roads to the tank farms has also affected the business, the container trucks are all over on the way, for you to move out of depot to your destination takes a long time”, he added.
The petroleum marketer advised that the Apapa and Tin Can Island seaports need to be relocated, stressing that seaports should not be centralized in Apapa.
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