We are yet to get fuel at official price, says IPMAN

• Published date: 17 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Queues at filling stations across the country may continue for a longer time as the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is yet to begin direct supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol, to members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

It would be recalled that at the peak of negotiations involving the NNPCL, IPMAN, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Department of State Services (DSS) and other stakeholders in the industry last month, the NNPCL, the sole importer of petrol, had assured the independent marketers of direct supply to their members.

IPMAN's National Operations Controller, Mike Osatuyi, in a telephone chat with The Nation, yesterday, said his members were still waiting for the NNPCL to fulfill its part of the agreement reached at the meeting by supplying them fuel directly instead of the present arrangement where they have had to buy from a 'third party'.

He regretted that despite the change of leadership at the NNPCL Retail arm, the situation had not changed.

'We reached an agreement with NNPCL for direct fuel supply since last month to give us direct supply of petrol, but till now, we are yet to get the supply. We are still buying from private depots who sell the product to us at N230 per litre and by the time it reaches our stations it is at N250 per litre. So we cannot sell at government regulated price because we don't even get it at regulated price,' he explained.

According to him, supply issues were yet to be resolved and that was why the major marketers were not selling regularly.

Besides, Osatuyi revealed that some of the filling stations that sell at the regulated price of N180 per litre are only putting up an appearance in the public, whereas behind the scene, from their depots, they sell the...