Fuel marketers have halted fuel imports, leading to stations running dry and queues returning. The last private dealer, Petrocam, that imported petrol into Nigeria recently cannot sell it due to the return of subsidy on the product and the insistence of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) not to raise the pump price.
Before last month, whenever they brought in the product, they would convince the NNPCL to raise the price in line with the landing cost. This was due to the fact that Bola Tinubu had announced the stoppage of subsidy payments on gasoline.
But following the harsh economic realities in the country and threats by labor unions to ground the economy should petrol prices increase again, the government, through NNPCL, stopped raising the cost of the product. This made the marketers halt its importation, leaving only the NNPCL to continue importing it.
The marketers revealed that the NNPCL had a lot of retail outlets and was finding it hard to satisfy their needs, let alone supply them to third parties.
“The depots have run out of stock. That’s the truth. For more than a month now, the only importer that has brought in the product is the NNPC,” a dealer, who spoke anonymously due to lack of permission, stated.
The National President of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, Benneth Korie, had earlier confirmed that many depots were currently empty.
When asked if other dealers were also importing the product along with the NNPCL, the source (not Korie) replied, “Sure, yes. Emadeb stated that, “Nipco imported products. About six to seven marketers imported products. Petrocam also imported products. So, it wasn’t only NNPC.”
On whether marketers were making profits considering the fact that subsidies had been restored on gasoline, the dealer said, “We were not making profits. Instead, what the NNPC was doing was helping with price adjustments. Firstly, when the situation began, each time marketers imported products, they influenced the NNPC to change its price, and once the NNPC changed its price, other marketers would follow.
“But for over a month now, I don’t think marketers have been able to influence the NNPC to change its price. So, that is why you hear that the landing cost currently is about N720/liter, but the NNPC is still selling at between N580 and N617, depending on your location.”
The source explained that the current price of gasoline had been maintained because the government was subsidizing the commodity.
“The government has said the price should not exceed that amount. So, for over a month now, no marketer has imported the product due to the reintroduction of subsidies,” the source stated.
On whether NNPC has enough products to keep the country wet since marketers have stopped PMS imports, the source replied, “The NNPC also has its problems too. The NNPC you have now is different from the one before. If it were before, even if they brought in 10 million liters, they could give close to seven million liters to other marketers and utilize the rest.
“But now, even some of their retail outlets don’t have products because there are so many now. So, you cannot import products; you can’t be supplying third parties.”