The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has picked holes in the statement credited to the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) on fuel supply in the country. It described the claim by the group that they have not been supplied enough fuel as unfortunate in a statement signed by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, on in Abuja.
The NNPC statement said “NNPC wishes to affirm that it has supplied appreciable volume to DAPPMA, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN). This effort is to rid the challenges currently being experienced in the supply and distribution of petroleum products 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’’, it said. It added that the claim by DAPPMA that the current hiccups in the supply of products was due to the inability of the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) partners of NNPC to deliver on their business obligations is unfounded and self-indicting.
According to the statement, many of DAPPMA members patronise the same DSDP international counterparts as the corporation. It added that 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 had not been able to do so. This , it said had left NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market. The Corporation assured the public that despite the increase it effected in the supply of PMS in the December 2017, it had programmed to supply 1.2 billion litres of the white products in January 2018.
It said that supply would translate to about 40 million litres of PMS supply per day.
“Ordinarily, Nigeria consumes about 700 trucks (about 27million – 30million) litres per day,’’ it said. It further reassured that there was no plan to increase PMS pump price above N145/litre and that NNPC would continue to maintain ex–depot price of N133.28/litre which guarantees the pump price not exceeding the N145 per litre capped by the government.
It called on all stakeholders to support the efforts of government to bring a speedy end to the current fuel distribution challenges being experienced in parts of the country. “This is not the time to play the blame game,’’ it added. It will be recalled that DAPPMA Executive Secretary, Mr. Olufemi Adewole in a statement, on Tuesday said none of its members had fuel in their depots and tanks nationwide. He said “While we cannot confirm or dispute NNPC’S claims of having sufficient product stock, we can confirm that the products are not in our tanks and as such cannot be distributed. If the products are offshore, then surely, it cannot be considered to be available to Nigerians.
