The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has condemned the recent claims by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) on the issue of fuel scarcity, especially Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol.
NNPC described as very unfortunate, claims by DAPPMA that the fuel scarcity witness across the country was due to the inability of the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) partners of the Corporation to deliver on their business obligations.
The reaction was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, about 24 hours after the allegation was made.
DAPPMA Executive Secretary, Mr Olufemi Adewole, had said in a statement on Tuesday that there were no products in their tanks, although they could not confirm NNPC’s claims of having sufficient product stock.
“If the products are offshore, then surely, they cannot be considered to be available to Nigerians. The NNPC imports and distributes through DAPPMA, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
“Our members pay the PPMC/NNPC in advance for petroleum products, and fully paid up PMS orders that have neither been programmed nor loaded are in excess of 500,000 metric tonnes, about 800 million litres as of today (December 26), and enough to meet the nation’s needs for 19 days at a daily estimated consumption of 35 million litres,” he had said.
Ughamadu, however, said the claims were “unfounded and self-indicting”, alleging that many of DAPPMA members also patronise the same DSDP international counterparts as the corporation.
He affirmed that the NNPC has supplied appreciable volume of petroleum products to DAPPMA, MOMAN, and IPMAN, to rid the challenges currently being experienced in the country.
“NNPC regrets that DAPPMA, which members had taken receipts of products from Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC and owe the company to the tune of N26.7billion as at December 21, 2017, has the audacity to indict NNPC unjustifiably.
“Despite the concession by the government giving access to DAPPMA to obtain Forex at an official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market,” the NNPC spokesman said in the statement.
The Corporation further assured Nigerians that despite the increase it effected in the supply of petrol in December, arrangements have been made to supply 1.2billion litres of the white products in January 2018.
According to them, this translates to about 40 million litres of PMS supply per day compared to about 700 trucks (about 27million – 30million) litres the country consumes per day.
Despite the current challenges, Ughamadu also informed the people that the Federal Government has no plan to increase the pump price of petrol above N145 per litre.
He also said NNPC would continue to maintain ex-depot price of N133.28 per litre, which guarantees the pump price not exceeding the N145 per litre capped by the government.
The Corporation noted it was not the time to play the blame game and urged all stakeholders to support government efforts towards bringing a speedy end to the current fuel distribution challenges in the country.
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