Petroleum marketers have blamed the current scarcity of petroleum products on the alleged shady deals between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMA, and the regulatory agency, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA.
The marketers claimed that the deals involving the NNPC, the tank farm owners and the NMDPRA, were inimical to the availability of the products and seamless distribution to retail outlets.
Against this background, the downstream operators have called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene in the issue.
The marketers who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that NNPCL being the sole importer of the products now put the Independent Marketers whom they noted have the largest retail outlets in the country at the mercy of the DAPPMA (the tank farm owners).
DAILY POST reports that NNPCL, the sole importer, gives petrol to the private depot owners operating under the aegis of DAPPMA at a depot price of N556.5 per litre.
Investigations, however, revealed that the tank farm owners sell to marketers at N700 to N740.00, leaving them with little or no marginal profit to sell at stations.
One of the marketers who pleaded anonymity said: “What we used to have in the past was an arrangement where the NNPCL gave allocations meant for Independent marketers to the private depot owners to sell to marketers with a benchmark, a reasonable price.
“Now, the independent marketers have no allocation, they are at the mercy of the tank farm owners. A situation where there is no ex-depot price won’t augur well for the industry. Private depot owners now sell at N800 to those of us who will sell at retail outlets to ordinary Nigerians.
“We are the ones Nigerians are accusing of hoarding products and selling at exorbitant prices. Instead of the midstream regulatory agency doing its job by beaming its searchlight on the activities of the tank farm owners, by insisting on the ex-depot price they are using the marketers as scapegoats.
“There is a cabal in the sector creating problems for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He must show the determined will to break their rank. How many stations do tank farm owners have.? But they are making huge profits to the detriment of Nigerians.”
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