Reactions have continued to trail the recent approval for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol into Nigeria, which was issued to 42 marketers by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA), as stakeholders have continued to ask question about the sincerity with which the exercise was carried out.
The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley had recently disclosed that the agency issued 42 petroleum product marketers, permits to import a total of 4.8 billion litres of petrol in the second quarter this year.
Reactions have continued to trail the recent approval for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol into Nigeria, which was issued to 42 marketers by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA), as stakeholders have continued to ask question about the sincerity with which the exercise was carried out.
The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley had recently disclosed that the agency issued 42 petroleum product marketers, permits to import a total of 4.8 billion litres of petrol in the second quarter this year.
However, concerned downstream operators have pointed out that the list of the marketers approved to import fuel has further indicated that the old order is still being followed as far as importation of fuel is concerned. According to them, a good number of firms fingered in the fuel subsidy scandal that engulfed the nation recently are conspicuous on the list.
Shipping Position Daily correspondent gathered that the list of the approved marketers includes: the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Capital Oil & Gas, Eterna Plc, Eurafric Coastal Services Ltd, ACORN Petroleum, AITEO Energy, ASCON Oil Company, Avidor, Oil & Gas, Bovas & Company, Conoil Plc, Dee Jones Petroleum & Gas Ltd and Dozzy Oil & Gas. Others include First Deepwater Ltd, Folawiyo Energy Ltd, Forte Oil Plc, Fresh Synergy Ltd, Heyden Petroleum Ltd, Honeywell Oil & Gas Ltd, Ibafon Oil Ltd, Index Petrolube Ltd, Integrated Oil & Gas Ltd and IPMAN Refining & Marketing Ltd.
Lubcon Oil Ltd, Masters Energy Ltd, Matrix Energy Ltd, Mobil Oil Plc, MRS Oil & Gas Ltd, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, NIPCO Plc, Northwest Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Oando Plc, Obat Petroleum Ltd, Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas Ltd, Rain Oil Ltd, Sahara Energy Ltd, Shorelink Oil, Sea Petroleum & Gas, SPOG Petrochemicals as well as Swift Oil Ltd also got permits to import PMS. Techno Oil, Total Nigeria Plc and A-Z Petroleum Ltd too were given approval.
Speaking with our correspondent in Lagos last week, an executive member of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) who prefers anonymity, hinted that the marketers had been told succinctly that the volume to be supplied for the second quarter of the year is based on their performance in the past and that any volume discharged in excess of the approved volume for the quarter shall not be considered for payment under the current scheme.
Our source who is also a marketer, however wondered why the PPPRA has decided not to punish the firms that benefited from the subsidy payments in 2011 and yet they refused to bring in the required product as agreed with the agency.
“as far as I am concerned the agency has become a toothless bulldog and they are taking Nigerians for a ride, it then means that all the subsidy fights we had in January this year is in vein” he lamented
Another petroleum supplier, Mr. Earnest Duke, pointed out to Shipping Position Daily that most of the companies that benefited from the subsidy money last year which culminated into the crisis are still on the new list. According to him, majority of them are mushroom oil companies with no Corporate Affairs Commision registration.
Duke also lamented that apart from the papers they tendered to the government, nothing has been put in place by the PPPRA at the tank farms in the country, specifically in Lagos which serves at the main point of importation in that can be used to measure the volume of product imported by each of the marketers.
Meanwhile, PPPRA had earlier threatened that marketers who underperformed in the last quarter of 2011 would be sanctioned. But the Executive Secretary recently said that “the agency decided not to hold marketers responsible for the poor performance in Quarter 4 of 2011 and Quarter 1 of 2012 when supplies were at about 33%, as it was occasioned by a force majeure in the operating environment.”
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