Independent Petroleum Marketers have attributed the current reduction in prices of premium motor spirit (PMS) to the partnership reached with the Dangote refinery under the aegis of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
Abubakar Maigandi Shettima, president of the association, disclosed this during the Petroleum Industry stakeholders meeting held in Abuja on Thursday. According to him, members of the association has begun loading of petrol from Dangote refinery along side MRS filling station from late last year, leading to a reduction in the retail price of petrol across the country.
Findings by BusinessDay showed that the price of petrol which rose to as high as N1,200 per litre following the removal of subsidy, crashed to below N1000 per litre in some parts of the country.
For instance, in Lagos and Abuja, some marketers sell at N900 per litre even below the price at which the product is sold at NNPC retail sells (N925/litre).
At one independent marketers’ station in Okota, Ago Palace Way, Lagos, petrol price was sold N900 per litre last week. Also, at the NNPC outlet at Apple Junction at Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, it was sold at N925/litre.
In Abuja, NIPCO Plc at Airport Road sells petrol at N920/litre, in Kano, Total Energy sells at N1,130 a litre. In Uyo, it sells at N1,149/litre. However, for A. A. Rano, the pump price is the same in the two cities – N1,150 per litre.
According to Shettima, “We have been loading with the Dangote refinery as same with the MRS. We have agreement between MRS, Dangote and independent marketers, that is why we sell at a lower price than other marketers because of the partnership with Dangote and we have a uniform price everywhere in the country, we sell at a price of N935 per litre.”
Also speaking with Journalists, Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for Petroleum Resources (oil) explained that the different prices at which petrol is being sold across the country is as a rest of the successful deregulation of the sector. This he said was necessary for the growth of the sector.
According to Lokpobiri, petrol prices are not controlled or predicted by an individual or the government, byt market forces. “The whole essence of deregulation is for price to find its place, before now everyday we hear negative news about fuel subsidy, but that does not happen anymore because the market is deregulated and price will find its place and when global price goes up, it goes up and when it comes down, it comes down.
Read also: How Dangote Refinery is scaling up with eight new crude tanks
” What the government is more interested in is quality control, availability, dispensation of the right quantity, so that if you are buying 10 litres of fuel, let it be that you are not sub changed and that is why there is competition and when there is competition, people have the choice of buying wherever they like no matter the price. That is the real essence of deregulation, so nobody in a deregulated market can tell you that prices will come down or will not come down.”
Speaking further, Lokpobiri explained that the government as part of effort to addressing the the challenges in the sector has set up the ‘Petroleum Industry stakeholders forum’. He explained that one of the challenges encountered by his administration at inception was the need to ramp up crude oil production, adding that it was already being addressed.
“The whole essence of the meeting is to bring the leadership of the industry together, to discuss certain things that will better the industry. The main reason is to form a forum, just like the bankers committee and capital market committee that sits from time to time to address issues in the sector.
“One of the challenges we had when we came on board was to see how we ramp up production and we are already addressing that, we are not where we want to be, but we are already getting there. The other challenge is ensuring availability of product, when there are queues, prices are likely to go up, those are the issues we have been able top address. We are also trying to address the issue of policy conflict where you see an agency making a policy that will conflict with another agency, we are also trying to address other concerns like taxes and levies which is about highest in the world,” he said.
For Billy Gilly, national president of Petroleum Product Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria, the forum was a welcome development as it provide a platform for stakeholders to come together to address the problems in the sector.
He explained that the it will allow for stakeholders to be carried along in policy making, “from policy making to implementation, to ensure availability of all kinds of energy, like gas, white products, to ensure that Nigeria’s energy security is guaranteed. We recommend a quarterly meeting such as this, and we recommend that no department should roll out policies that are not discussed.”
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