IPMAN: How volume of petrol lifted by oil marketers dropped by 40%

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) says the volume of petrol supplied to marketers by private depots have dropped by about 40 percent.

Zarma Mustapha, IPMAN deputy president, spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Friday.

In December 2022 , the NNPC had said it had 1.9 billion litres of petrol in stock, assuring Nigerians of steady supply to quell the lingering scarcity across the country.

However, he said the country is in a “complex situation owing to the burden of subsidy that the government is carrying”, which he said was no longer sustainable.

The IPMAN deputy president said the volume of petrol that the NNPC imports has been affecting “paucity of the funds” of the federal government.

“Because of that, the supply that we receive as marketers at the loading points, we believe we don’t get what we usually get — even 50 percent of what we get,” Mustapha said.

“Some [time] in July, August, the volume of liftings we had and what we have today has dropped by about 50 percent or 40 percent.”

Mustapha added that the lingering presence of queues at fuel stations across the country could be due to the high cost of the subsidy.

“We are just assuming maybe the volume of the products they are bringing in — the more the volume, the more the cost of the subsidy,” he added.

“It doesn’t seem that they are bringing in more. If they’re bringing in more, we would be having the same volume that we usually get at the loading point.

“As of today, with what is trending at the private depots, the volume available is not enough. The private depots also contribute by not giving the product as it is being regulated by the NNPC.”

‘PETROL IS SCARCE, COSTLIER AT DEPOTS’

Also, Mustapha noted that he had not heard of any official statement from NNPC or the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on insufficient supply.

“But with the look of things, [with] what is going on at the loading point, the product is not enough as they usually bring it, supply it to the private depots and we purchase from the private depots,” he said.

Furthermore, the IPMAN deputy president said NNPC is responsible for the importation of petroleum products and distribution to private depots, adding that independent marketers do not have depots.

“Yesterday, I bought a product in Lagos at a depot at N247 per litre to be transported down to the far North at the cost of N50-N60 per litre. Even we as independent marketers don’t really understand what is happening,” he said.

“As of yesterday, it is going for about N240 in Lagos, N235 in Warri, and N240 in Port Harcourt. In Calabar, it’s as high as N250 per litre.

“As a marketer, you will buy that product for upward transmission to where your retail outlet is. You’ll transport it yourself.”