As crude prices gain in the international market, Nigeria’s petroleum products marketers have said it is longer possible for them to continue selling petrol at government regulated price of N145 per litre.
The price of crude is directly proportional to the pump price of refined product in the country because Nigeria exports its crude oil and import refined products as the countries four refineries are almost comatose.
A report recently released by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on the operations of the oil and gas sector for the year 2015, revealed that the four refineries processed only 5percent of the 445,000 barrels per day domestic crude allocation while the rest was sold or sent for offshore refining.
Speaking Tuesday, after a meeting with the Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Chairman of Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN), Mr Dapo Abiodun, disclosed that the marketers can no longer import and still sell fuel at a controlled price of N145 per liter.
The meeting was called at the instance of the President’s chief of staff to find out why the country was plunged into petrol scarcity crisis last month and to adopt strategies to prevent a recurrence.
“We explained that the problem was not willful on the part of anyone, neither NNPC nor marketers. The situation from our point of view is that from January to September, the price of crude remained relatively stable but in the months of September/October, crude prices went up and marketers lost the ability to import and sell at N145 per liter.
He explained that In the past marketers bring in about 60percent while NNPC brings about 40 per cent. But by the month of October, marketers completely stopped importing due to rise in crude prices resulting to NNPC being faced with the burden of 100percent importation.
Meanwhile, the government has retained the N145 cap per litre for pump price of petrol and set up a committee headed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to come up with strategies on how best to handle the situation.
Other members of the committee are are the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, heads of most parastatals under the ministry, Independent Petroleum Marketers, Depot and Petroleum Marketers, as well as members of the organised labour unions.
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