Petroleum product marketers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has assured Nigerians of the availability of the products across the country during the yuletide.
The assurance by IPMAN follows reports of the reappearance of fuel queues in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and some parts of the country.
According to NAN, this was made known by the President of IPMAN, Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, during an interview on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, in Lagos.
What the IPMAN President is saying
Okoronkwo, however, appealed to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to hasten the payment of billions of Naira to marketers as bridging cost.
He said: “We want to assure Nigerians that we are ready to cooperate with the government to ensure that there is hitch-free supply of petroleum products across the country during this yuletide and beyond.
“IPMAN is calling on the NMDPRA to hasten the payment of bridging debts owed to marketers by the defunct Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) to enable seamless operations in the industry.”
The IPMAN President noted that the bridging payment was necessary to encourage marketers to transport petrol from the depot to other depots that are experiencing supply shortfall due to distance.
He said the NMDPRA which took over from PEF had assured the marketers of the payments following a series of meetings over the issue.
In case you missed it
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had earlier assured it is committed to ensuring stock availability of petrol during the Yuletide season despite fuel queues mounting in the Federal Capital Territory.
The NNPC which revealed that its available stock has risen from 1.7 billion litres to over 2 billion litres within the last one month, urged Nigerians not to engage in panic buying ahead of the festive period.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the NMDPRA, had earlier in December, assured it will continue to honour and process claims for bridging of petrol to ensure product availability nationwide.
This, it hopes to achieve with the reimbursement of petrol marketers for trucking of products to filling stations to anywhere across the country in order to ensure price uniformity.
