A federal government directive, over the weekend, now enables independent oil markets to directly purchase petrol supplies from the Lagos-based Dangote Petrochemical Company or its competitors. Everyone, including the last-mile consumer, thinks that is good.

Before that sort of arrangement, only the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had the exclusive right to import the premium motor spirit even up to the point when the Dangote plant newly started producing the same PMS in September after a long wait. Despite a few interesting milestones being ticked in a short while, the uneasiness still didn’t clear out, so the State Department moved to step in. 

Last Thursday, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) complained that the NNPCL was asking that it buy petrol at a price that far outstrips the original distributor rate that Dangote offered. Added to the ₦15billion already paid to the national oil company for products undelivered over the course of 90 days makes for a difficult burden the association knows it will struggle to bear, hence the move to voice out.

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IPMAN’s national president, Abubakar Maigandi, speaking at a live TV broadcast highlighted that our major challenge now is that independent marketers have an outstanding debt from the NNPC 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/litre in Lagos; N1,045 in Calabar; N1,050 in Port-Harcourt; and N1,040 in Warri.

The association called for a quick intervention, and that is what the Department of State Services delivered shortly after. An agreement aided by the Director General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Ajayi, had an NMDPRA director and the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari co-piloting it at a meeting. It was there that a new reality was finalised.

Under a different arrangement, independent marketers will load products directly from the refineries around under a willing seller-willing buyer stance. This perfectly aligns with the demands of the Petroleum Industry Act, of 2021, which opens up the market for entities that meet the eligibility standards.

Now speaking in an interview with Punch Newspaper’s Imoleayo Oyedeyi, Mr Maigandi shined a brighter light on the outcomes of the DSS intervention. He said regarding the agreements, they [NNPCL] reduced the price slightly.

Since the NNPCL already has the independent marketers’ ₦15billion, they also promised to allow us to load all our tickets. Once we finish loading, we can sit down with them again for subsequent deals. They said they would open the portal on Friday, so that we, the marketers, can complete the payment.

Friday is the estimated loading date before IPMAN starts to get the value of the initial payment. NNPCL has a portal where it administers contractual engagements with stakeholders and that is what the association is looking to do. Members would log on to complete more orders as soon as they are ready and not feel deterred by the asking price.

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Meiza Nigeria