Oil Marketers Turn Down FG’s Request To Import Fuel

Oil marketers under the umbrella of Oil Marketers Association of Ni­geria (MOMAN), Thursday, turned down Federal Government’s invita­tion to resume petroleum products importation into the country.

Besides, the association, through its chairman, Mr. Adetunji Oyeban­ji, told participants at the Nigerian Petroleum Downstream Consulta­tive Summit that it was more re­warding and value-adding for the Federal Government to create enabling environment for investment in the oil sector to thrive.

Oyebanji, who is the managing director of 11Plc, maintained that govern­ment should make wider consultation per its planned deregulation policy.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agen­cy (PPPRA) on Tuesday, in Abuja, disclosed that permits had been given to several marketers to start importing petrol alongside the NNPC.

Before the downstream oil sector was liberalised in March this year, the NNPC used to be the sole importer of petrol, a task it handled for more than two years.

Since 2017, the NNPC was the sole importer of petrol into the country but that would change as reports say with the liberalisation of the downstream sector in March, this year, the NNPC would no longer be the sole importer of petrol.

Oyebanji said marketers had to shun importation because of the inability of government to refund sub­sidy claims for three years running.

He added that resump­tion of fuel importation transcended mere an­nouncements as any move to change the present price control regime must be backed by a law.

He said when the govern­ment announced removal of subsidy few weeks ago and followed it up by a statement about deregulation, stake­holders were taken aback as there was no input from them on those issues, saying that marketers needed addi­tional clarity on that.

He said MOMAN fully backs deregulation and wished that subsidy remov­al was forever.

He said market forces should be allowed to deter­mine prices of petroleum products as done in dereg­ulated economies, adding that it would engender com­petition, boost investment, and generate jobs as well as providing government with more revenue.

In her remarks, Hajia Amina Maina, Group Chief Operating Officer of MRS Holdings, said government policies had handicapped investments in the depot space of the sector.

According to her, a stan­dard depot costs about N3 to N5 billion and due to low margin and inappropriate policies many investors have abandoned the busi­ness.

She noted that with the NNPC taking over 100 per­cent of import and price de­termination with little mar­gin for depot owners many have left due to huge bank loans and business takeover by AMCON.

She expressed optimism that investment would grow if government took strong measures to deregulate, es­pecially now that COVID-19 had set businesses strug­gling.

Speaking, Billy Gills-Har­rry, national president, Pe­troleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, advised govern­ment to take a strong po­sition on the deregulation exercise to allow more flow of investments in the sector.

Also, Winifred Akpani, MD/CEO of Northwest Pe­troleum and Gas Company, urged a proper and deter­mined position by govern­ment to encourage a wider investments by deregulat­ing the sector.

SOURCE: independent.ng