IN recent days, there has been a ding-dong between members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the Dangote Refinery, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). The founder of the Dangote Refinery, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, had stirred the hornet’s nest when he said that his refinery currently had over 500 million litres of petrol available for sale, but that the retailers were not collecting available products to ease petrol queues, resulting in financial losses for the company. The declaration apparently outraged the retailers, who insisted that they had been unable to load petrol from the Dangote Refinery for days. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, IPMAN’s president, Abubakar Garima, said IPMAN members were not importing petrol as claimed by Dangote. The problem, he said, was that the refinery was requiring its members to go through the NNPC when it should actually be allowing them to buy the product directly from it. He said: “If he (Dangote) can sell the product to us directly, we can buy the product because we have to pay before we pick. Presently, we have N40 billion in the NNPC’s custody but we cannot source the product. Just of late, there were some of my marketers that NNPC sent to load petrol in the Dangote Refinery and those marketers stayed with their trucks for four days, and they could not load.” Garima said allowing independent marketers to load petrol directly from the Dangote refinery could lead to a reduction in petrol prices. He also urged Dangote to check his pricing template, arguing that it should not be unduly high.
Predictably, the Dangote Refinery took up IPMAN. In a statement issued by its Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, the company said the NNPCL was yet to authorise it to release petrol to the oil marketers. It said: “Although discussions are ongoing with IPMAN, it is misleading to suggest that they (IPMAN members) are experiencing difficulties loading refined products from our Petroleum Refinery, as we currently have no direct business dealings with them. Consequently, we cannot be held responsible for any payments made to other entities. The payment in mention has been made through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and not us.” Subsequently, though, IPMAN accused the refinery of failing to engage major stakeholders in the petroleum distribution sector, asserting its right to purchase refined petroleum products from the cheapest available source. While calling on the refinery to change its model of engagement, Yakubu Suleiman, National Assistant Secretary of IPMAN, said the association could not fold its hands and allow anyone to monopolise the system. He pointedly accused Dangote of using the political class and the public to sway opinion and gain sympathy.
He said: “Like every Nigerian, IPMAN is happy for Dangote and for the refinery, which is very strategic for the country. As IPMAN, Dangote is supposed to have invited us for engagement; not only IPMAN, but all stakeholders in the oil industry, like IPMAN, MOMAN, and DAPPMAN. But unfortunately, up to this moment, there has been no engagement. It is only IPMAN that is even trying to engage him. We went to Dangote about three to four times, seeking a meeting on how to have synergy between IPMAN and Dangote, all to no avail. The first time, he even insisted he was going to engage only individual marketers, which is not in consonance with our principle of engagement with IPMAN as a body. We have tried to bring these issues to his attention, but unfortunately, he has not understood that.” In return, the Dangote Refinery accused IPMAN and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) of importing substandard petrol into the country, saying that this was the only way imported product could be cheaper than locally refined ones. In a press statement released by Chiejina, the refinery offered a glimpse into its pricing template since it rolled out petrol on September 22. It said: “We benchmark our prices against international prices, and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports…Post deregulation, NNPCL set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing, and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks.”
It is a pity that even with a local refinery operating, Nigerians have not had the needed relief with regard to petrol pricing and access. Before now, there was an expectation that refining petrol in the country would lead to a significant reduction in price. This was the reason many Nigerians were quite jubilant when the Dangote Refinery announced its intention to roll out petrol in September. Since then, though, it has been pain and more pain for the long-suffering masses. Sadly, the NNPCL, which has been unable to fix Nigeria’s four refineries, is still acting as the sole off-taker of the product of the Dangote Refinery, a private business, despite several denials. Before now, the NNPCL had openly said that it was stepping down from its role as the sole off-taker of the product, telling anyone who cared to listen that independent marketers could buy directly from Dangote. Alas, it was a lie.
NNPCL has increased the pump price of petrol three times within a short time. It has therefore become the supervisor of the pains of Nigerians rather than an enabler of relief, which is expected to come with the functioning of Nigeria’s four refineries on which it has expended billions of dollars over the years without any results. If the NNPCL had been up to and doing, it would not have mattered if the Dangote Refinery and the oil marketers were engaged in a duel, as Nigerians would have had alternative sources of supply. Nigerians have been left in the lurch and, sadly, it has no solution to the hardship being unleashed on them. Public statements on the petrol industry offer no hope. This is beyond distressing.
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