To address the lingering fuel scarcity across the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has reached an agreement with no less than 30,000 independent petroleum marketers to make Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, available in Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Ogara.
This development is part of the efforts of the government and stakeholders in the fuel supply chain to find a permanent solution to the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
Investors King earlier reported that NNPC and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have been meeting on how to resolve the fuel scarcity which has led to a situation where the products are being sold at N250/litre and N270/litre in most filling stations.
NNPC currently supplies products to major oil marketers who sell the product at the regulated price of N180/litre to the public. However, IPMAN members have said they have not been able to get fuel at the regulated depot price of N148/litre, adding that filing stations are getting the products from depots at over N200/litre.
Similarly, the presence of black marketers has also skyrocketed prices. The black market price is as high as N400/litre in some major cities.
However, the new arrangement is expected to boost fuel supply across the country and probably put an end to the persistent fuel queues across the country.
Speaking on the development, IPMAN National Comptroller of Operation, Mike Osatuyi noted that NNPC would begin to supply fuel to depots at Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Ogara for independent marketers effective January.
Osatuyi noted that IPMAN members nationwide would start selling petrol at the government-regulated price of N180/litre effective January if the arrangement sails through.
‘By January, we will start getting the products. We are currently gathering names for submission, we are collating our names, and it will have to go through some other process before it will eventually be approved. We have to also arrange for some vessels to drop fuel at some depots in Calabar, Port Harcourt, Ogara, and Lagos,” he said.