Petrol Should Not Sell For Less Than N800/L - Oil Marketers Accuse FG Of Lying That It Has Removed Fuel Subsidy

 

Oil marketers have said the federal government is not saying the truth about its purported removal of oil subsidy.

 

Speaking on Tuesday, Oct. 10, the oil marketers countered the Federal Government’s claim that there is no subsidy on fuel in Nigeria.

 

The oil marketers insisted that the current pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, should not be less than N800/litre if there was no subsidy on the commodity.

 

Petrol currently sells at between N580/litre and N617/litre.

 

On Monday, Oct. 9, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, denied the reintroduction of petrol subsidy and claimed that the queues in petrol stations across the country stemmed from hiccups in products’ distribution from the South to the North and not a lack of supply. 

 

“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market, and we understand why the marketers are unable to import. We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy,” Kyari had stated.

 

He had made the claim after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria confirmed the return of fuel subsidy.

 

Also, oil marketers had earlier stated repeatedly that fuel subsidy had returned, as they explained that the landing cost of petrol as of last week was N720/litre.

 

On Tuesday, Oct. 10, they slammed the NNPCL boss for coming out to state that the government was not subsidising PMS.

 

The National Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief John Kekeocha, stated: “I don’t know why the government keeps peddling lies. When they removed the PMS subsidy, a dollar was about N700 and they made us believe that the removal of subsidy would make the supply of products play according to the dictates of demand and supply, looking at forex as the benchmark.

Kekeocha said the government went ahead to remove the subsidy without looking at the nitty gritty involved before implementing the decision.

 

“You cannot wake up overnight and remove subsidy without considering the pros and cons, only for you to wake up again and start putting back the subsidy into play secretly, and you think Nigerians will not know,” he stated.

 

Asked to state the implications of these concerns in the downstream sector, Kekeocha replied, “I am telling you that in a very short time there will be no product anywhere in this country, apart from the tank farms that have access to diesel.

 

“This is because many marketers cannot even function well with the cost of diesel. Check the cost of diesel and the cost of supply and distribution. How many marketers can do it and sell at about N600/litre? The cost of landing PMS is over N700/litre.”

 

Explaining the effect of the cost of diesel on the operations of filling stations, the IPMAN official stated that “when you compute the cost of bringing PMS from Warri to Abuja or other Northern states by an independent marketer, it will land here (North) at more than N700/litre.

 

Kekeocha, however, noted that tank farm owners involved in retailing of petrol were few, stressing that such category of dealers were very limited when compared to independent marketers.

 

Independent marketers control about 80 per cent of filling stations across the country, as a reduction in their operations is going to lead to scarcity in many locations, particularly areas that lack major operators that have tank farms.

 

“So independent marketers cannot compete right now due to the high cost of diesel and the inability to import due to forex issue, which is why you see that the number of functional filling stations nationwide have been reducing on a daily basis,” the IPMAN official stated.

 

On whether stabilising forex would help the situation, Kekeocha replied, “The government cannot address forex because it is not within their control. If the government has to address forex, it means it still has to make it clear that they have decided to bring back subsidy.

 

Asked to state what the government should have done earlier, he said, “There is nothing we can do now than to do what we would have done before – make the refineries work. If refineries are working and they are producing at Warri and Port Harcourt, it will reduce the pressure on importation.

 

On claims by NNPCL that it had enough product, the IPMAN secretary said this was not entirely correct.

 

 

On his part, the National President, Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, Benneth Korie, said filling stations were closing, as he insisted that fuel subsidy had been gradually reintroduced.