NNPC restates commitment to eradicating fuel queues; initiates direct delivery to IPMAN outlets

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has stated that the Special Intervention Fuel Supply instituted by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, is intensifying efforts at eradicating the noticeable fuel queues across the country with the sustained truck-out of petrol to the nooks and crannies of the country.
The NNPC, in a statement in Abuja, Monday, noted that with relative product stability in some major cities like Abuja, Kano and Lagos, the intervention is trucking-out large volumes of petrol to the hinterlands and deep country side where product distribution remains a challenge.
According to the NNPC, despite the public holidays, over 22 million litres of petrol were trucked-out nationwide within the last 24 hours with a bulk of the volumes hauled to fuel stations in the countryside to ensure adequate product penetration.
In addition, Kachikwu shed light on the issue of price modulation and subsidy removal, assuring Nigerians that the Federal Government will place more emphasis on products availability and refineries’ efficiency, noting that the price of petrol will not be fluctuating but based on an average price mechanism.
Kachikwu, who stated this during a working tour of the Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company (KRPC), assured Nigerians that the NNPC was working hard towards ensuring that full efficiency returns to the nation’s refineries which are expected to produce about 10 million litres of petrol per day by January 2016.
“The president is very emphatic on this; he expects that products should be about N87. He has also given approval for us to be able to look at market trends and make adjustments as need be.
“My commitment and I think that is what the president’s commitment is, is to provide products at all the time so that there is efficiency, and provide it at the least possible price and let it have some relationship with what the trends are,” he said.
He, however, observed that when the prices of petroleum begin to go up, government will look at those trends and then begin to see how the prices could be adjusted.
“We are not going to be fluctuating prices day to day, we are going to take like an average and I think that today when you look at prices, we have no subsidy but prices remain low and that is what we need to do. It is the honesty in being able to sell products to Nigerians at affordable prices that make sense, “ Kachikwu added.
Meanwhile, in its quest to reduce the fuel scarcity ravaging the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has initiated direct supply of petrol to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) retail outlets in the country.
This was stated by the National Operation Controller of IPMAN, Mr. Mike Osatuyi, during an inspection tour of some IPMAN retail outlets in Lagos. Osatuyi, who praised the initiative of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, said that more than 300 trucks of PMS were supplied weekend.
Apart from NIPCO, Capital Oil and very few others, the NNPC previously didn’t supply fuel to IPMAN retail outlets for lack of confidence and irregularities carried out in most of the stations, but to bring the current supply situation under control, the Corporation resumed fuel supply to them. Osatuyi stated that one of his filling stations, Nyce Petroleum, located in Akute, Ogun State, benefited from the intervention measure, and got two trucks of 40,000 litres and 36,000 litres, making a total 76,000 litres of petrol.
Under the latest move, NNPC would provide petrol to registered and certified members of IPMAN, deliver the products to their respective retail stations, and ensure that, IPMAN monitors that the products are sold at the approved price of N87 per litre. The current arrangement according to him, has saved IPMAN members the hassles of going to depot to queue for products because NNPC has already taken off the burden of sourcing for products and transporting to the retail stations.
According to Osatuyi, “We are here to showcase what the Federal Government is doing in terms of PMS intervention scheme. You can see that the government is bringing petrol to dealers to sell at official price of N87 per litre, and we are selling at N87.
They brought two trucks which we are yet to pay for. This is unbelievable. We have never seen this before. I want NNPC/PPMC (Pipeline and Product Marketing Company) to continue and sustain it. We at IPMAN can assure the government that we will support them now they have agreed to partner with us. We will not fail them. This is for the benefit of the masses, which the government of President Muhammadu Buhari stands for.
“The product is sold at N87 here at NYCE filling station, but about 80 per cent of filling stations in Nigeria sell above N87 but with this intervention, the price of N87 per litre will be uniform across the country. The process has just started, we need to be patient and believe in government, and very soon the question of selling above the official price will not be there at all.
“IPMAN members own and control about 84 per cent of the retail outlets in this country, so now the government is ready to work with us, we too are ready to work with them. If they give us the fuel, we sell it.”