The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, has authorised major petroleum marketers to commence lifting premium motor spirit, PMDS, otherwise known as petrol, from Dangote Petroleum Refinery under the existing agreement between it and the refinery.The initial agreement stated that NNPCL is the sole distributor of the refinery’s petrol with the first batch of the consignment put at 16.8 million liters lifted by NNPCL’s retail entity. Findings indicated that some major marketers, including 11 Plc have already lifted the product for distribution to their outlets in Lagos and other parts of the nation.One of the marketers who pleaded anonymity, said: “I can confirm that we have some major marketers already lifting from the Dangote Refinery, but it is still under the NNPC arrangement with the refinery, in other words, we are lifting NNPC product from the Dangote refinery. It is not our product. We have no direct arrangement with the refinery.”It wasalso learnt that independent marketers have not been included in this modified arrangement.In a telephone interview with newsmen, the National President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Alhaji Abubakar Garima, confirmed that only NNPCL has access to Dangote fuel and they discharge the bulk of the products to their retail outlets.He added that they are not yet buying from the NNPCL under the Dangote Refinery arrangement.He stated: “Independent marketers are waiting for NNPCL to give the new price of the petroleum products in order to lift from them. We load at the old rate of N875 per litre as most of our members have outstanding stock with NNPCL; we were told that they will be cleared this week.”Under the deal that made NNPCL the sole off-taker of petrol from Dangote Refinery marketers have said they may have to resort to importation in order to continue in business. Marketers have therefore asked the Federal Government to completely open up the sector to all players.Meanwhile, checks around Abuja and Lagos yesterday showed that four days after NNPC began loading of petrol from Dangote Refinery, many filling stations were yet to be supplied with the product and they have been locked up.Speaking with newsmen, the Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, said the group plans to begin importing their own petrol.“There has been no progress in the situation. We have been waiting for NNPC and nothing has changed. We have information that at least three marketers are bringing in products from outside of the country. This is Dangote’s chance to work with independent marketers.“We are asking Dangote to sell to us at the same price as NNPC. We don’t understand why he has to depend solely on NNPC to distribute its product when he has other willing buyers.“We are also looking at importing to keep our business. We are also asking the Federal Government to also hand over the Port Harcourt Refinery to independent marketers. We will engage capable people to manage it. That is the only panacea to this problem”, he added.Commenting on the new product lifting arrangement with the major marketers, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr. Muda Yusuf, said: “Well, ordinarily, this should be a good development, but, we need more information. We need to know the framework under which they are lifting. We need to know the pricing framework and other details, including the involvement of NNPC.”
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