The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, IPMAN Aba Depot unit has advised the Federal Government to do massive importation of fuel or the crisis will continue this yuletide season.
The Executive Chairman, IPMAN Aba Deport unit, Mazi Oliver Okolo handed down this advice today after a closed door meeting with the Abia State Commissioner for Petroleum, Chief Sam Eze Nwanganga adding, “if the truth must be told, the product in the country as we speak, is not enough to sustain the country.
“So, they (the federal government) need to do massive importation which they promised us they are doing”.
Mazi Okolo further stated on what is being expected this yuletide season; “We are not expecting anything because, unless there is a quick intervention where they will give us direct allocations and we can load the product and truck it out.
“They can bring in more vessels and naturally, the fuel situation would disappear”.
The IPMAN Aba Depot boss disclosed, “All of us are worried. We are suffering. We told them (Abia State Government) our own predicament that we cannot get the allocation directly.
“That we are pleading with them to see if they can help us talk to NNPC top management to give us our direct allocation because we have a contract with them.
“We are their marketers. We are supposed to have direct allocation from them which they are not giving us”.
He further explained, “Rather they are compelling us to go and buy the product from the Tank Farms and those tank farms are filling those products at a very high cost.
“A recent payment was N225.00 per litre at Port Harcourt. Concerning the cost of transport and other logistics, probably, the landing cost cost will be at about N235.00 per litre and we may be selling at N245.00 or there about. This is a reasonable margin.
“Precisely, we have agreed with the Commissioner of Petroleum and his team that they will help us to see if we can get this product directly from the government and let everybody monitor it back to our stations that we will sell products at the normal price which government has approved.
“Anything less than that will be difficult to sell because we also buy products from Port Harcourt at the rate of N225.00. Put the logistics, the landing price will be about N235.00 t0 N240.00. We cannot sell anything below N250.00 and that is the truth.
“But they promised us that we will sit together and see how we can mitigate the situation”.
Mazi Okolo expressed his optimism that the state government can help them, adding, “NNPC is the government and all of them are governments. It is only the NNPC that imports the petroleum product in this country and they are the sole distributor of the petroleum product.
“So, they (the state government) can interface with federal government and with us and tell them that let them give us direct allocation and that we will also want to monitor it because the problem is getting out of hand in our state.
He lamented that the last product that was turned out from Osisioma Aba Depot was about September/October, 2021 stating “and since then, no other product has come there.
“So, the little product that is left there is what they have been trucking out; two trucks, ten trucks, five trucks. So, that place is as good as nothing is happening there.”
Confirming the outcome of the meeting, the Abia State Commissioner for Petroleum, Sam Eze Nwanganga said in order to assist IPMAN in Abia, he asked them to bring up a letter that will be forwarded to the state governor for his necessary actions.
