IPMAN: Marketers get petrol at over N200 per litre from depots

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has decried the ‘unsustainable’ price that the private depot owners sell the premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol in the country.

What IPMAN said: Speaking on Thursday, November 24, 2022, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, the Deputy National President of IPMAN, Zarama Mustapha, revealed that the private depots get petrol at the approved price of N148/litre from the sole importer of the commodity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. however, sell it for as high as N195 to N210 to independent marketers, which is not sustainable.

"Though marketers get petrol at the approved price of N148/litre from NNPC depots, the company does not have enough storage facilities to cater to the needs of marketers, hence, the latter resorts to private depot owners. It is more of the issue of private depots collecting the products at the approved price and not selling to the independent marketers at a price approved by the mainstream, downstream regulatory authority.

“You cannot get a product at N195 to N200 and expect to sell it at N175,” he noted.

Why petrol is expensive: The IPMAN official said depot owners give excuses such as the cost of transporting the product from the mother vessel to their depots and escalation of the dollar as reasons for the price hike.

What you should know: Mustapha lamented that most Lagos depots are in a chaotic situation and marketers spend three days to load refined petrol that they are not supposed to spend more than three hours to lift.

Mustafa urged the NNPC to engage depot owners to sell the product to marketers at the recommended price, saying the common man is at the receiving end.