The Federal Government should close down depots that are selling petrol above the approved price, oil marketers said on Thursday.
National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Sanusi Fari, said the sale of petrol above government approved price by depot owners would soon lead to a hike in the commodity’s pump price.
Fari told journalists in Abuja that the government through its agencies such as the Department of State Services and the Department of Petroleum Resources should curb the development to avoid crisis in the downstream oil sector.
He said some private depot owners were selling at N165 per litre to independent marketers, way above the government stipulated price of N148 per litre.
Fari said, “Our challenge is the inconsistency in the pricing of petrol. Up till a week ago, government was still insisting that the February price for petrol remained unchanged.
“And most of the private depot owners are selling above the government stipulated price. As at today ( February 25, 2021) private depot owners are selling at N165 per litre to independent marketers.”
He added, “In the last six years, only NNPC imports refined products into this country and these tank farms buy their products from NNPC under a controlled price.
“This has affected our businesses seriously because government is insisting that we sell at the rate of N165, which is not going to work.”
The IPMAN president said filling station owners buy the product at N165 per litre from the private depots and incur other expenses such as transportation, rent, etc.
“So government cannot expect us to sell less than what we buy,” he said.
Fari added, “This is why we are calling on government and agencies that are saddled with the responsibility to control petrol pricing to urgently clamp down on depots that are selling above the stipulated price.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the country’s sole importer of patrol, recently stated that it never hiked the cost of petrol to depots.
It also enjoined the depot owners to sell the product at the approved rate and called on the DPR to enforce the stipulated price across the depots.
