Yemisi Izuora
New twist have emerged in the blame game between petroleum marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, over the current scarcity of petrol across the country.
The latest claim by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketing Association, DAPPMA, is that the NNPC and its subsidiary, Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC is owing its members N90 Billion for products they have already paid for.
The DAPPMA is a statement by its executive secretary Olufemi Adewole and obtained by Oriental News Nigeria maintains that the Association has made significant sacrifices to avert the crises being experienced by Nigerians.
“The essence of our initial ‘Press Release’ was to throw light on salient issues surrounding the shortfall in current petrol supply which is presently solely handled by the NNPC. It was not an attempt to join issues with PPMC/NNPC with whom we are partners.
NNPC’s view of our press release stating our side of the story and seeking to defend marketers for the very first time, against the unwarranted accusations of hoarding and profiteering is rather unfortunate.
It is an undisputable fact that DAPPMA members have paid for petrol supply (with bank funds) for over one month, the value of which is in excess of N90 Billion yet PPMC/NNPC had no cargo to allocate to them. As such how can we be held responsible for hoarding?”, Adewole stated.
He said that the PPMC/NNPC does not transact business with DAPPMA members on credit, “hence we are not aware of any indebtedness to PPMC/NNPC by our members, We again reject any attempt to blame marketers for the shortfall in supply as it is not our making since NNPC has been the sole importer since October 2017.”.
The executive secretary said that marketers have continued to sacrifice to keep the country wet with fuel despite over N600Bn debt owed our members and over N800Bn owed marketers as a whole by the Federal Government.
Nonetheless, Adewole assured Nigerians, irrespective of NNPC’s stance, that all possible steps are being taken as we have always done, to cooperate with PPMC/NNPC to eliminate the fuel queues nationwide within the next few days.
It will be recalled that the NNPC, in a statement Wednesday said it has supplied appreciable volume to DAPPMA, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) to rid the challenges currently being experienced in the supply and distribution of petroleum products in the country.
The Corporation, which was reacting to the claim by DAPPMA over shot supply of products however regretted that DAPPMA which members had taken receipts of products from Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC and owe the company to the tune of N26.7billion as at December 21, 2017, has the audacity to indict NNPC unjustifiably.
“The statement by DAPPMA that the current hiccups in the supply of products was due to the inability of the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) partners of NNPC to deliver on their business obligations is unfounded and self-indicting as many of DAPPMA members patronize the same DSDP international counterparts as the corporation.
Despite the concession by the government giving access to DAPPMA to obtain FOREX at an official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market”, the statement endorsed by general manager, group public affairs of the NNPC, Ndu Ughammadu noted.
The NNPC further assured the public that despite the increase it effected in the supply of PMS in the December 2017, it has nonetheless, programmed to supply 1.2billion litres of the white products in January 2018, translating to about 40million litres of PMS supply per day. Ordinarily, Nigeria consumes about 700 trucks (about 27million – 30million) litres per day.
“Despite the current challenges, Nigerians are reassured that there is no plan to increase PMS pump price above N145/litre and that NNPC will continue to maintain ex–depot price of N133.28/litre which guarantees the pump price not exceeding the N145 per litre capped by the government.
All stakeholders are implored to support the efforts of government to bring a speedy end to the current fuel distribution challenges being experienced in parts of the country as this is not the time to play the blame game”, the statement appealed.