“One, is for the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow the marketers access forex at the rate of N204 to a dollar as against the official rate of N305 to keep the pump price of fuel per litre at N145”.
The Chairman, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Dapo Abiodun, disclosed these to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
On his part, President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okoronkwo, said the meeting reached a resolution that would see the fuel supply problem resolved once and for all. The marketers can not import the PMS because of the cost of the crude oil.
The minister disclosed further that as a result of the N26 difference per litre between the current landing cost of the product ( N171) and pump price of N145, NNPC which had been singularly importing the product at the volume of 25 million litres per day since October past year, has been incurring a daily loss of about N800-N900million, cumulatively reaching N85.5billion today, in just three months.
Four sub-committees were constituted at the meeting, chaired by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
A source close to yesterday’s meeting said: “We have already told them that it is only the NNPC that will be able to import the PMS”.
It was also decided that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will sell petroleum products directly to marketers thereby eliminating the middlemen in the chain in one of the moves to combat fuel scarcity. “To discuss and address the issues, we have to seek approval from the President”, the Minister said. 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. “From our point of view as marketers, we made our submissions known to government and we emphasized the fact that this was not a marketer-related problem”. 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%.
He explained that crude prices had remained relatively stable from January to December until his members lost the ability to import and sell at N145 per litre when the prices went up due to the hurricane Katrina in September/October. And this business is a partnership between marketers and NNPC. The government believes Nigerians should not be made to buy fuel for more than N145.
His statement read in part: “NNPC warns marketers not to hoard products as law enforcement agencies, working with industry regulators, have been detailed to take appropriate measures against any defaulter”.
” Two, to give room for modulated deregulation where NNPC would be allowed to continue selling at N145 per litre in all its mega stations across the country while the independent marketers should be allowed to sell at whatever price is profitable to them in all their outlets”.
On how close the government is to that lasting solution, the minister responded: “We are going to sit down and find lasting solution”.
Culled from Here
