The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has officially agreed to allow oil marketers, represented by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, to start lifting Premium Motor Spirit from its depot at a reduced price.
According to The PUNCH, this decision is part of ongoing efforts to address the concerns of independent marketers over high costs, which recently led to threats of a nationwide shutdown.
In a related development, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority committed to issuing both import and off-taker licenses to IPMAN members.
This would enable them to either import fuel directly or purchase it from the Dangote Refinery, aligning with the government’s strategy to fully deregulate the petroleum industry.
The concessions came after IPMAN raised alarms over the cost discrepancies in petrol supply.
The association had revealed on Thursday that while the Dangote Refinery supplied petrol to NNPC at around N898 per litre, NNPC was selling it to independent marketers at significantly higher prices—N1,010 per litre in Lagos, and even more in other cities like Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Warri.
IPMAN, which controls over 70 percent of Nigeria’s filling stations, opposed this price difference, threatening to halt operations if the issue remained unresolved.
They also called on NNPC to refund previous payments made by members for petrol supplies.
In a televised interview, IPMAN’s national president, Abubakar Maigandi, expressed the association’s frustrations.
He pointed out that independent marketers had not only been asked to purchase petrol at much higher rates than NNPC’s procurement costs, but their funds had also been held by NNPC for three months.
“Our major challenge now is that independent marketers have an outstanding debt from the NNPC and the company collected products through Dangote at a lower rate, which is not up to N900, but they are telling us now to buy this product from them at the price of N1,010/litre in Lagos; N1,045 in Calabar; N1,050 in Port-Harcourt; and N1,040 in Warri,” Maigandi emphasized.
After a peace meeting facilitated by the Director General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Ajayi an agreement was reached.
NNPCL consented to allow the marketers to lift products to cover the N15 billion owed to them. The meeting involved key stakeholders, including a representative from the NMDPRA and NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
IPMAN’s National Publicity Secretary, Chinedu Ukadike, confirmed the agreement in an interview with The PUNCH.
He explained that the DSS director played a critical role in resolving the dispute, leading to compromises that enabled independent marketers to resume product lifting.
“We were invited by the Director of the Department of State Services to resolve the ongoing issue between the association and the NNPCL. The meeting was on the non-compliance of selling PMS to IPMAN by Dangote Refinery and the problem we are having with NNPCL in terms of pricing. Based on this, the director of DSS invited us and brokered peace,” Ukadike shared.
He added that one of the outcomes was NNPCL’s decision to reduce prices for independent marketers and allow them to load petrol worth N15 billion.
Additionally, the NMDPRA agreed to issue import licenses to IPMAN to promote full deregulation in the sector.
However, when contacted, NMDPRA’s spokesperson, George Ene-Ita, denied knowledge of the meeting or any license approval.
“I am sorry, I am not aware of any meeting or license approval. I was not part of it,” he said.
In a separate resolution, the NMPDRA committed to paying N10 billion to the oil marketers as part of their outstanding Petroleum Equalisation Fund payments.
