The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that the petroleum scarcity that persisted all over the country for the past three months is caused by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) because it fails to distribute products to marketers according to the number of outlets they have.
Lagos State Chairman of IPMAN, Alanamu Balogun in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week said the independent marketers have the largest number of filling stations with about 2,000 outlets spread across the state, but he lamented that IPMAN only gets 30percent of the product from NNPC.
Giving a breakdown of how the product is shared by NNPC, he said that Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) with 500 outlets gets 20percent of product, while NNPC Retail outlets with just 30 filling stations in the state get 50percent.
Alanamu told Shipping Position Daily that the numbers of trucks shared to IPMAN members are insufficient and this was why many filling stations have remained shut down for a long time, thereby exacerbating the fuel scarcity.
According to the IPMAN Chairman, the NNPC retails that have just 30 fuel stations across the state are now the ones selling petrol at exorbitant rate to independent marketers that have the larger number of stations. He said this was the reason why some filling stations cannot sell fuel at the N145 per litre fixed by government.
“The scarcity is persisting because we don’t have enough products, if the product is available; I believe my members would sell it”
“Also, the sharing formula that NNPC is using now is not helping matters, it is the independent marketers that have the larger number of stations in the whole country, when NNPC wants to share the product, they are supposed to share the product according to the number of stations that each group has”
“In Lagos for instance, IPMAN has almost 2000 stations spread across the state alone, the major marketers, MOMAN has about 500 stations while the NNPC retailers have less than 30 stations across Lagos, but we are surprised that when NNPC wants to share their product, they would give the NNPC retail outlets that have less than 30 stations, 50percent of whatever they have, they would give IPMAN just 30percent and MOMAN 20percent”
“The NNPC retails that have just 30 stations across the state are now selling out the product at exorbitant rate to independent marketers that have the larger number of stations, this is why you hear that independent marketers are selling above pump price, and hoarding, why is NNPC giving the largest volume to those who don’t have the outlets to sell?”
“Out of the 30percent that they (NNPC) are giving to independent marketers, we give Suleja two percent, we would give Ore out of it because their depot is not functioning, Ilorin receives only five to six trucks of product every day, this is not enough for the whole of Kwara State. Ore also take only five trucks per day which is not enough for Ogun, Osun, Ondo and other areas”
“NNPC knows the truth but they would not do it”, he said.
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