The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association Of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that they are planing the importation petroleum product into the country without government subsidy.
Speaking in Abuja, National secretary of the body, Danladi Pasali said the move, if approved by the federal government would save the country huge funds, until local refining capacity can be improved.
He said that only about 30 percent of the country’s current consumption is refined by the four refineries in the country if they are operating at full capacity.
It would be recalled that the federal government said it has paid N500 billion to oil marketers in the last six months.
“We urge the Buhari administration to support IPMAN in mobilising our foreign partners in importing petroleum products at no cost or without subsidies payment to government,” Pasali said
“We have done all our mathematics that through our new model of Crude Oil SWAP arrangement; we can wet the country with petrol and kerosene and still gain from the transactions”.
He said that the association plans to build two new refineries with refining capacity of 400,000 barrels per day by Blue Oil International.
IPMAN operates about 20,000 gas stations around the country. Pasali stated that a member of the body is in Lagos to monitor the current scarcity situation and ensure that the scarcity is completely eradicated.
Meanwhile, industry experts argue that the landing cost of petroleum product hovers around N135 and N137 and unless petroleum products are refined locally the landing cost of petrol, if not subsidized, might be too high for Nigerians to bear.
The President of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG), Achese Igwe, also added that unless the Federal Government evolves efforts to refine petroleum products and put the nation’s refineries in good shape, scarcity of fuel would persist in the country.
Igwe advocated the need to remove fuel subsidy and deregulate the downstream sector, saying that it was a shame that Nigeria continually import petroleum products despite its large hydrocarbon deposit, blaming the past and present leaders for the endemic corruption in the downstream nation’s sector.
