Petrol marketers in Nigeria have given several warning to the federal government that they can no longer sell petrol at N145 a litre.
Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) insisted that selling petrol at N145 a litre was no longer profitable as the price of crude oil in the international market has risen and this has a corresponding relation with the price of refined products.
Dapo Abiodun, chairman DAPMAN told journalists at the end of the meeting that the meeting was called by the government to find a lasting solution to the cause of the petrol scarcity.
“We explained that the problem that you saw is not willful on the part of anyone either NNPC or marketers.
“The situation, from our point of view, is that from January to December, the price of crude remained relatively stable. Following the Hurricane Katrina in the month of September, October, crude prices went up and marketers lost the ability to import any sell at N145 per litre.
“Since the price of crude is directly proportional to the refined product, we could not import petrol and sell at N145 anymore. And this business is a partnership between marketers and NNPC. Marketers bring in a certain volume and NNPC also brings in a certain volume.
“In the past marketers bring in about 60% while NNPC brings about 35 to 40 percent. But by the month of October marketers completely stopped importing because there is no more subsidy so we can’t sell for profit so we have to stop importing.
“So, the burden of importing 100% now fell on NNPC. So you can imagine a situation where NNPC was importing in part and marketers were importing in part and then suddenly NNPC begins to import 100%. Couple with the fact that in the months we called the ember months from October to December the consumption of petrol is highest in the country.
“So, you now have what we call a double warning. NNPC is suddenly finding its importing what they probably didn’t expect in terms of volume and the fact that Nigerians themselves are consuming more volume that they will normally consume in earlier months. Couple with the fact that the countries that are surrounding us as a nation are all selling fuel at more than $1 per liter. $1 today is about N360. If you go to Cotonou, Ghana, Niger so is is not unlikely that some of our petrol is finding itself across the border to these countries.
“All these are issues we believe amounted to what we saw in December but thankfully NNPC rose to the occasion, they stepped up import, stepped up supplies that situation has since normalized.
“Today’s meeting is to ensure that this does not happen again and this we are going to continue tomorrow in the committee that was set up under the chairmanship of the Minister of State for Petroleum to ensure that we find a long-lasting and enduring solutions to this problem so that Nigerians will not have to go through this borrowing situation again.”
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