NNPC, major marketers on collision course over petrol supply to Abuja
- nationalpilot
- Jul 23, 2015
- 3 min read
The apparent failure of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) to supply sufficient petrol to Abuja despite alleged adequate product allocation from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has set the corporation and the marketers on a collision course on Wednesday.
In a bid to sanitise the fuel distribution and supply system across some cities, the NNPC has warned that henceforth any marketer found to be involved in product diversion would have its Bulk Purchase Agreement revoked.
This is coming as the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited (PPMC), a subsidiary of the corporation, revoked the lifting licence (Bulk Purchase Agreement) of three independent marketers for engaging in products diversion and sundry infractions.
It was gathered that while the PPMC had extracted a commitment from the major marketers that each of them would dispatch between 15 and 20 trucks from Apapa in Lagos to Abuja daily, actual load-out from the marketers to Abuja has remained allegedly low, according to the PPMC.
The marketers have however, refuted claims by the PPMC that it has given them enough product allocation to flood Abuja with petrol, saying the PPMC lacks daughter vessels to bring product from the mother vessels at the high seas to the major marketers' depots at Apapa.
MOMAN comprises Conoil, Forte Oil, Mobil Oil, MRS, NIPCO Plc., Oando and Total Nigeria Plc.
In a letter recently addressed to the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, the Managing Director of PPMC, Mr. Haruna Momoh, reminded the marketers of their earlier discussions on the need to maintain consistent supply to Abuja “to avoid gridlock, security risks and other problems associated with product scarcity in the Federal Capital, Territory (FCT).”
The letter with Reference No. PPMC/CSD/ED/45B, which was obtained by journalists and signed by one Amego FE, on behalf of Momoh, also reminded Olawore of his commitment to ensure that each of the seven marketers loads out between 15 and 20 trucks to Abuja daily.
“We wish to observe that the major marketers load-out to Abuja has remained very low from NNPC discharges to their facilities at Apapa. Available records on daily truck load-out shows more concentration on other areas with little consideration for the federal capital.
The PPMC boss also requested Olawore to impress on the major marketers the need to improve and maintain steady product supply to Abuja on daily basis.
“Additional volumes may be loaded from NNPC depots and throughput depots (Capital Oil and Folawiyo in Lagos, Matrix Energy at Warri and Blacklight Oil at Oghara),” Momoh added.
But in a swift response, Olawore in a letter dated July 21, 2015, told Momoh that the marketers did not have sufficient petrol at Apapa during the period cited by the PPMC boss.
To support his claims that the major marketers received insufficient allocation from the PPMC in the month of June, Olawore also released the individual truck-out of each of the marketers to Abuja during the period.
According to the report, Mobil loaded out 106 trucks of petrol to Abuja; Conoil (15 trucks), MRS (164 trucks), Oando (250 trucks), NIPCO (228 trucks), Total (191 trucks) and Forte Oil (104 trucks).
According to Olawore, between June 10 and June 16, three major marketers were totally out -of- stock, while the three others had only few days stock.
He reminded the PPMC boss that the marketers had earlier suggested that two vessels be dedicated to them using Bulk Oil Petroleum (BOP) jetty and four vessels for Petroleum Wharf (PWA) jetty.
Comments