• IPMAN begs NMDPRA, NNPC not to delist operators from sales portal to avert fuel crisis.
• Queues persist as more filling stations open for sale, pump price drops marginally.

Over 9,000 oil marketers are on the verge of losing their operating licences as Nigerians battle fuel scarcity.

As a result, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria is urging the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to extend its final deadline for licensing renewal to July.

It also appealed to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority to release 9,000 already processed licences to its members.

The association made the request known in a release signed by the National Public Relations Officer, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, on Thursday in Abuja.

Recall that IPMAN in a statement on Sunday lamented the slow pace of marketers’ licence renewal by the NMDPRA.

The NNPCL had placed a deadline of April 15, 2024, for marketers to renew their licences or risk closure to access their customer express portals for the purchase of petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited.

But IPMAN requested an extension, saying the extension would enable marketers to reconcile their licenses and reduce panic buying by members of the public aggravating the present scarcity of petroleum products.

The statement read, “The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria are abreast with current developments in the downstream sector of our petroleum industry and wish to state that the latest information reaching us from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority states that they have already processed more than 9,000 out of the 15,000 licenses they are expected to process for our members within this period.

“Marketers are fast-tracking the processing of their licenses to avoid the impending closure of their customer express portals for purchase of petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited.

“We, therefore, use this opportunity to appeal to the management of the NMDPRA and NNPC Retail Limited to respectively release the processed licenses and extend the deadline for delisting of marketers from their express portals. If our request is granted, it will ease the tension of panic buying by members of the public in order not to aggravate the present scarcity of petroleum products.”

Giving further clarity in a telephone interview, Ukadike said, “The release is to appeal to the NNPCL and NMPDRA to please extend the final deadline to July so that it would enable them to reconcile the licences so that they will not be unduly shut out off the portal and that is IPMAN appeal.”

Recall that IPMAN had on Tuesday declared that it would shut down the 30,000 stations operated by IPMAN members across the country if the Federal Government failed to pay the N200bn that was being owed marketers.

IPMAN specifically said the NMDPRA had refused to clear the debt, which had continued to accrue since September 2022.

It disclosed this in a communique issued in Abuja by the Chairman of IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum, Yahaya Alhassan, over the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims.

• Fuel Scarcity Lingers

In their quest to buy the currently scarce Premium Motor Spirit, commercial drivers in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State have started keeping vigil at fuel stations.

The Federal Government on Wednesday said it had begun a 15-day emergency fuel supply to ensure the commodity circulates across the length and breadth of the country to immediately cushion the scarcity.

The government also disclosed that vessels importing Premium Motor Spirit would continue to berth at the shore to discharge petrol to different depots, from where the product would be distributed to different filling stations.

But despite these promises, the product is yet to be available to residents as commercial drivers now keep vigil at filling stations in Abeokuta, Lagos, Oyo and others.

Commercial drivers have raised transport fares as the majority of them now patronise black marketers who sell a litre of petrol at N1,200 per litre or more.

A commercial driver, Adio Adegoke, at Slaab filling station in Abeokuta, said that he had slept in his taxi in an attempt to buy fuel.

“I had to park my car here since 7:30 pm yesterday when my tank went empty. I slept at Divine Pax Oil and Gas filling station,” he said.

Also, a mechanic, Lekan Ade, corroborated the claims of the taxi driver stating, “I just bought it there this afternoon for one of my customers, they are still selling it as we speak at the rate of N950 per litre.”

It was gathered that a fuel station, aside from being written on their metre, an attendant was also seen warning motorists to go if they could not buy the product at that rate.

Another driver, Adeoluwa Onasanya, told one of our correspondents that many slept at the filling station before they could get the product.

It was observed that the persistent fuel scarcity seems to be a huge source of income for black marketers, as young boys and girls were sighted by the roadside in Lekki, Ajah and other parts of Lagos advertising fuel in jerry cans.

It was also observed that along the Egbeda-Idimu-Ikotun axis of Lagos, the black marketers sold five litres of the product for N6,000.

A young man who gave his name as Mr John said, “How many litres do you want? We sell 5 litres here for N6,000. At the fuel station, they sell a litre for N1,200, we have to bribe the fuel station to be able to get the product, I can give you any amount of litre that you want,” he boasted.

Long queue of vehicles were observed at the NNPC filling station along the Cele Expressway which was selling at N568/litre, while the AP filling station at Barracks Bustop was selling fuel at N700/litre with a long queue of motorists scrambling to buy fuel.

As the queues refuse to ease off at the filling stations despite the promises from the government, Nigerians are worried that the fuel crisis might degenerate into loss of sources of income.

Credit: The Punch

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum says it is yet to conclude work on what the states can sustainably pay.

Chairman of the Governor’s forum, governor Abdukrazaq of Kwara State, noted that as members of the 37-member tripartite committee for the national minimum wage which is yet to conclude its work, “the governors are reviewing their fiscal space to see the consequential impact of the various recommendations.”

“While we acknowledge various initiatives adopted of recent by way of wage awards and partial wage adjustments, it is imperative to state that the 37-member tripartite committee inaugurated on the national minimum wage, is still in consultation and yet to conclude its work.

“As members of the committee, we are reviewing our individual fiscal space as state governments and the consequential impact of various recommendations, to arrive at an improved minimum wage we can pay sustainably,” the statement read in part.

However, the governors said they remain committed to the process and promised that better wages will be the invariable outcome of ongoing negotiations.

“We remain committed to the process and promise that better wages will be the invariable outcome of ongoing negotiations”.

Meanwhile, organised labour has submitted a proposal of N615,000 monthly minimum wage for workers, urging the federal government to approve same.

Oil marketers have stated that they are unaware of the specific logistical issues that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) indicated were to blame for the country’s present low product supply.

Last Wednesday saw the return of a fresh petrol shortage, which has since gotten worse, leaving Nigerians to deal with the fallout.

Due to the scarcity, prices have since increased in Lagos to ₦1,200 per litre on the black market and as much as ₦800 per litre in some filling stations owned by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

Prior to the shortage, fuel was sold at stations run by the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) for around 610 per litre.

Some filling stations sell petrol for as high as N850 to ₦900 per litre in locations such as Maryland, Ikeja, Agege, Iyana Ipaja, and other outskirts of Lagos. In some states, the product sells for more than ₦1,000 per litre at filling stations. Even at that rate, most filling stations have since shut their doors due to a lack of products.

The NNPCL blamed the development on logistics challenges. The spokesperson for the company Olufemi Soneye said last week that the challenges have been resolved.

But almost a week later, oil marketers have said they are in the dark about the nature of those challenges. They also dismissed claims that they were hoarding the products.

“Do you blame oil marketers for the current situation? If NNPCL gives us products, we will sell them because we are businessmen. We are in this business to make money, so we won’t keep products in our tanks if we have,” the Chairman of IPMAN Satellite Depot, Lagos, Akin Akinrinade told Channels Television.

“They said they have a logistics problem and have 240 million litres in store to distribute. But that was what they told us since last weekend. They said the logistics challenges have been resolved but they didn’t tell us the type of logistics problem they have.

“For now, NNPCL stations are mostly the ones selling with just a few others getting supply. But you know our members have the largest number of stations nationwide. If they give IPMAN stations products, you will see that the queues will disappear immediately.”

Currently, IPMAN has over 30, 000 filling stations nationwide.

According to Channels Television, a top source among the oil marketers said  that there is not much product in circulation.

“We don’t have much products as we speak. According to them, they don’t have smaller vessels to take the fuel from the larger vessels. Others are saying it’s because of bridging claims. As I speak, I don’t have fuel in my depot. I am going around begging for fuel,” he said.

“If you tell NNPCL you need say like 80, 000 tons of product now, they will give you 10, 000 tons. So, you will sell small, and then everything goes dry again.

“If they claim they have fuel, and no products in our tanks, then, it still translates to a no-fuel situation. Again, NNPCL is selling to us at around N600 per litre, and as of today, the landing cost of gasoline at the international market is ₦847 per litre.

“So, if I buy at ₦847/litre and add other costs, the pump price will be about ₦1400 per litre. So, if I sell at that price in my station, who will buy it? Even we marketers can’t buy much at that price. So, we continue to manage the situation.

“And if we make noise too much, they will tell us to go and import too. How will we import with the high exchange rate? If we import on our own, who will buy from us at that high price?

“Those currently selling at low prices know how they go about it because, during scarcity, everybody will be doing whatever they like.”

Chinedu Ukadike, the Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, had on Sunday, said that the prevailing scarcity of petrol could persist for an additional two weeks.

Ukadike told journalists that the product was not available in the country, because most refineries in Europe were undergoing turnaround maintenance.

“I also have it on good authority that most of the refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance, so sourcing petroleum products has become a bit difficult.

“NNPC Group CEO has assured us that there will be improvement in the supply chain because their vessels are arriving.

“Once that is done, normalcy will return. This is because once the 30-day supply sufficiency is disrupted, it takes two to three months to restore it”, he said.

Unconfirmed speculations doing the rounds have also woven the current scarcity around an imminent increase in the price of PMS, which according to them, led to excessive hoarding, and panic buying, among other things.

While the public was still hoping for an improvement as promised by the NNPCL, IPMAN had threatened to withdraw services over non-payment of ₦200bn bridging claims.

The association’s unit chairman and spokesperson, Aba Depot, Mazi Oliver Okolo who made the threat, said it was with the backing of the IPMAN’s national leadership.

He claimed that the debt is being owed by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NMDPRA).

In a communique released after a press conference on Tuesday, Okolo said NMDPRA failed to pay the ₦200bn debt despite a directive for payment from the Petroleum Minister (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri.

The IPMAN deport chairman claimed that since the directive by the minister in February 2024, only ₦13bn had been paid to their members, saying that the unpaid claim had crippled their businesses.

“We are extremely distressed and depressed by the laidback attitude of the leadership of the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), towards the survival of our member’s businesses, arising from NMDPRA’s deliberate delay and refusal to offset the debt of over ₦200 Billion owed our members, which has consequently led to the deaths of many of our members and the unfortunate collapse of their businesses.”

He blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the sole importer of petroleum products, for the current nationwide petrol scarcity, adding that some of its members have “completely” shut down their businesses, and retrenched their employees.