By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The NNPCL has reached an agreement to sell petrol to the members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria for N995 per litre.
This occurred after the Department of State Services (DSS) intervened in the dispute between the two parties.
Hammed Fashola, the National Vice President of IPMAN, stated that the involvement of the DSS has addressed numerous challenges encountered by marketers.
“We really appreciate their intervention. They are doing their job. Anywhere they have seen that there may be a crisis, it is their duty to intervene. And their intervention brokered peace and understanding between the parties, and everybody agreed to work together.
“For now, tentatively, I think they are offering us N995 per litre.
“Our members sell at N1,200 or so and this depends on the location. I think with the N995, there will be a little reduction. Don’t forget that if you transport a product from Lagos to a far distance, you will pay for transportation and other charges.
“We want to work on that because we want to have a common ground. When we sit down and look at the price analysis offered to us, and factor in all our expenses, we want to have a uniform price as much as possible.
“So, I will not be able to tell you the exact price now, but we are working on it, especially in the Lagos axis and other zones. We will look at the transportation cost and all that. At the end of the day, we will fix the price for ourselves.
“The price disparity has been a disadvantage between us and the NNPC Retail and major marketers. So, we are trying to look at how to close that gap so that we come back fully into the business. The lack of direct supply has been our problem, and now that we are solving that problem, I don’t think that disparity will be there again.”