Massive Fuel Import Will Prevent Crisis, Says IPMAN

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The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Aba Depot Unit, has handed out an advice to the Nigerian government on how to prevent fuel crisis.

They advised the Federal Government to carry out a massive importation of fuel to avert a crisis during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The Executive Chairman of the unit, Mazi Oliver Okolo, stated this after a meeting with the Abia State Commissioner for Petroleum, Chief Sam Nwanganga.

He said it was clear that the product in the country is not enough to serve Nigerians.

“So, they (the Federal Government) need to do massive importation which they promised us they are doing,” he added.

Okolo further said, “We are not expecting anything unless there is a quick intervention where they will give us direct allocations and we can load the product and truck it out. They can bring in more vessels and naturally, the fuel situation would disappear.

“All of us are worried. We are suffering. We told them (the Abia State Government) our predicament, that we cannot get the allocation directly, and that we are pleading with them to see if they can help us talk to NNPC top management to give us our direct allocation because we have a contract with them.”

He added, “We are their marketers. We are supposed to have a direct allocation from them which they are not giving us. Rather, they are compelling us to go and buy the product from the tank farms and those tank farms are filling those products at a very high cost.

“A recent payment was N225 per litre in Port Harcourt. Concerning the cost of transport and other logistics, the landing cost will probably be at about N235 per litre and we may be selling at N245 or thereabout. This is a reasonable margin.

“Precisely, we have agreed with the Commissioner for Petroleum and his team, that they will help us to see if we can get this product directly from the government and let everybody monitor it back to our stations, and that we will sell products at the normal price which the government has approved.

“Anything less than that will be difficult because we also buy products from Port Harcourt at the rate of N225/ltr. Putting the logistics, the landing price will be about N235 to N240. We cannot sell anything below N250 and that is the truth.”