IPMAN president accuses NNPC of buying petrol from Dangote between N800 and N900, selling to marketers at N1,010 per litre
By Jeffrey Agbo
National President of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Garima, has claimed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) bought petrol from Dangote Refinery less than N900 and wants to sell to oil marketers from its depot at N1,010 per litre in Lagos.
He said in an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday that the company wants marketers to sell the product at N1,045 in Calabar, N1,050 in Port Harcourt, and N1,040 in Warri.
This comes after NNPC retail stations in Lagos hiked fuel price from N868 per litre to N998 and from N897 in Abuja to N1,030 following an end to the deal which made it the sole buyer of petroleum product from Dangote Refinery.
Garima said, “Well, we know now that we cannot call it an increase, but rather, we can call the removal of subsidy deregulation. Now, deregulation has started taking place fully.
“But our major challenge now is that independent marketers have an outstanding debt from the NNPCL and the company collected products through Dangote at a lower rate which is not up to N900 but they are telling us now to buy this product from them at the price of N1,010 per litre in Lagos, N1,045 in Calabar, N1,050 in Port-Harcourt and N1,040 in Warri.”
On why the marketers haven’t approached Dangote to get the product at the same price, Garima explained, “We have a problem with that because we have booked products through the NNPCL, and suddenly, when they decided to increase the price, they are now asking us to add more money to buy above what Dangote is selling to them.
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“We have informed them to return our money to our banks so that we can go directly to Dangote for our supply. Presently, our money is with them, for about three months. We buy our products from them before loading. NNPC doesn’t sell on credit and when products are available, they call us to pick them up.
“But with the recent changes, we have requested that they sell to us at Dangote price or return our money. That’s the current situation and is the reason for the scarcity. We started negotiation yesterday.
“Dangote is selling to them around N800 to N900 and we are asking that it should be sold at that same price. We can decide to sell at a lower price of N1,020 or N1,010.
“We also refused to buy it because they bought it at a cheaper price from Dangote but want to sell it more expensive than the amount they currently sell at their stations. This is a great challenge because this will mean our price will be higher, and it also means they would have a profit of over N100 per litre.”
The IPMAN leader added, “Marketers want to be fully engaged in the business of petrol and its components. The NNPCL has been the one bringing in the product and loading and has an offtake in Dangote Refinery.
“We are now being allowed to import and there is no challenge on that issue. What we are after is to get the product directly from Dangote and not through NNPCL. Currently, they are owing us up to N15bn.”