Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, has disclosed many oil marketers are closing shop as they are not making a profit due to the high cost of PMS sold to them by the NNPC.
According to DAPPMAN, a lot of jobs have been lost due to the shutdown of businesses by oil marketers, adding that this may trigger a widespread petrol crisis in the sector if not handled adequately.
The association’s Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, told PUNCH that the increase in the price of PMS by NNPC to DAPPMAN members from N111 per litre to N117 had put a severe strain on the operations of oil marketers.
Adewole stated that most marketers were not making a profit and when asked why they had remained in the business of PMS sale despite incurring losses, he replied, “There are margins for the dealer, retailer, etc, and it is from the addition of these margins that a depot owner works out his income.
He stated that the government had refused to adjust the pump price of PMS despite increasing the prices which depot owners pay for the product.
On whether marketers would vacate the petroleum product business should the government fail to deregulate the sector, the DAPPMAN executive said, “If I say 100 marketers were operating last year and now it is only 10 that are operating, where have the remaining 90 gone?”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said the corporation did not effect any recent increase on the ex-depot price of PMS and that there was no plan to increase the pump price of the product.
He, however, did not react to the claims by the marketers that they (marketers) were closing shop due to the high cost of the commodity to them.
SOURCE: concisenews.global