The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said its members currently suffer a supply shortage of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise known as petrol in the wake of scarcity of products sweeping across the country.
The association currently has more than 3000 members controlling the largest share of filling stations across the country.
Chairman Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ore Depot, Engr Shina Amoo who was a guest on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Tuesday, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) currently the sole importer of petroleum products, has failed to supply its members with adequate products capable of catering for the activities of its members in the last three years.
He said, “There is no supply anywhere. For now, the only supply available is not well distributed. We have been making noise about the distribution pattern long ago. We had a type of arrangement before now, where we used to enjoy 70/30 supply based on our strength. If you go to areas like villages, and urban areas, you will see lots of independent marketers where you would not find any major or semi-major marketers.
“But now we can’t even talk of IPMAN when it comes to supply. We are not even being considered when it comes to supply. Go around, if you see 50 petrol stations, and you take a random sample, you will discover that only between three to eight would be selling products. And these products we are selling, we are getting them at premium prices. Virtually all the depots we buy from sell to us at prices they want to sell from the neighbourhood of between ₦750 to ₦850.
“All the private depots have been selling to us at the prices they want for years now instead of getting products at ₦560 from NNPC. None of us have been able to get products from NNPC for over 2-3 years. Instead of getting from NNPC directly, when you pay your draft today, you will end up picking your product between three to five months later. So time would have eroded the profit by the time you get your product.
“So we now prefer to line up at any private depots. I don’t want to mention their names. They sell products to independent marketers at premium of like ₦850, ₦800, ₦870 per litre.
“Before now, when you make payment to the NNPC- like in the Ore depot, we make payment to NNPC, and we have to wait for a week before loading. But today, when you make payments, there will be long procedures, and bureaucracy. Before you now access the products takes about four months. But now, we go to depots close to us in Delta State to source for products.
“After making payment for the product maybe at ₦800 per litre, you will pay for transportation of about ₦22 per litre to land at Akure. That is what we are facing right now.
“NNPC supplies the depots. I mentioned something earlier about the distribution pattern. The year NNPC abandoned the distribution pattern was when they stopped being sincere. They stopped supplying IPMAN, and would rather supply DAPPMAN, MEMAN. And the volume they give us cannot handle IPMAN’s activities.”
He said the major problem is fuel subsidies, and NNPCL as the sole importer.
Amoo spoke to the rise in prices of products at the depots after the removal of subsidies, saying if corruption was removed from the downstream system, prices of products would be forced to drop.
