Indigenous marketers seek review of fuel sharing ratio
From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt
A MAJOR policy shift that will give a competitive edge to indigenous fuel dealers has been canvassed by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
Among others, the marketers are asking the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to review the current equal 50 per cent sharing ratio of products between the major dealers and IPMAN in the latter's favour.
The association's President, Alhaji Habu Adamu Jajire, said that IPMAN's members were more on the ground than the multinational fuel marketers.
At a workshop on capacity building organised by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Jajire also urged the Federal Government to implement policies that would restrict major oil companies to the upstream sector of the industry. This, he said, would create more opportunities for the indigenous entrepreneurs to participate fully in the downstream sector of the industry.
It has also demanded that the government should review its perceived discriminatory policies in the downstream sector. Reason being that the existing government arrangements put the independent marketers at a disadvantage position. The association claimed that its members had over the years been denied a level-playing ground.
In his paper, Jajire said despite the association's increasing investment in the petrol service outlets as manifest in its members' control of over 70 per cent of the market share, the government's policies were not to their favour.
Jajire said it was the considered view of the association that sharing of available products ought to be based on the strength of service outlets between composite players in the downstream for the sake of equity and fairness in the sector.
He said that despite the present sharing ratio, which favoured the major marketers, they also enjoy 30 days credit from the NNPC whereas the local dealers must source funds at very high interest rates to pay cash before lifting their "paltry" allocation from the depots. He then called on the PPPRA to assist IPMAN members under the ongoing reforms.
The IPMAN boss explained that the recent upward review of prices of products did not reflect in the marketers' margin that, which allegedly bore the burden of downstream operational expenses.
He said: "Before the upward review of pump prices on September 23, 2004 a truck of 30,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) ex-depot was N1,003,000. In the adjusted regime, now the same quantity ex-depot is N1, 365,000. A round margin of N7.50 per litre in the old regime is now reduced to N6.50 in the new regime. The story is the same on all the white products."
He commended the government for the current reforms in the industry because according to him the nation could not be isolated from the international market.
In the reform process, he said the privatisation of depots and refineries would play key roles and advised that IPMAN member companies be given priority in the sale of the facilities in the downstream sector.
He argued they have technical competence to manage the refineries and depots.
The PPPRA chairman, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, was represented by Mr. Salvation Philips.
|
