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 was also learnt that independent marketers have not been included in this modified arrangement.
In a telephone interview, 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.
