By Adewale Sanyaolu

Unless urgent steps are taken to halt the decay, the epileptic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol may be further disrupted during the Yuletide.

This was even as the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), yesterday assured Nigerians of an intense fuel crisis yuletide.

“As we approach the Yuletide and transition to the election year in 2023, the nation needs the full involvement of all operators to shore up capacity and ensure product availability at excellent service levels. While there might be fears regarding possible scarcity of PMS, DAPPMAN assures Nigerians of its ability and willingness to work assiduously to ramp up supply as the government addresses the challenges of FX availability in the sector,” DAPPMAN said.

The assurance by DAPPMAN is a contradiction to the position of members of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) which recently accused private depot owners of profiteering, leading to a recent threat by IPMAN to embark on strike if the situation was not addressed.

Addressing the media in Lagos yesterday, the Chairman of DAPPMAN, Dame Winifred Akpani, called on the government to give petroleum marketers access to foreign exchange at the official Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate to enhance the supply and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) across the nation this yuletide season.

According to her, shortage of Forex coupled with several unauthorised levies, bad roads are among the factors making fuel importation and distribution burdensome for members. Akpani, said the burden of sourcing forex through the paralell market for transactions domiciled in Nigeria had left petroleum marketers in “dire straits”.

“Accessing USD (dollars) for our operations has been an insurmountable hurdle for petroleum marketers. The difference between CBN exchange rate and the Parallel market exchange rate continues to get wider by the day,” she said.

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Akpani noted that in addition to core operational expenses that are denominated in dollars, petroleum marketers also contend with sourcing funds from the parallel market to pay for fees and levies, some unauthorised, that are also charged in dollars.

“For exampe, to charter a vessel to convey 20,000 MT of PMS within Nigeria for 10 days, freight charges are denominated in dollars, that comes to about N220 million at official forex rate of N440 and a whooping N440 million for petroleum marketers who have to source forex from the parallel market at N880. This implies an additional cost of N11 per litre for this transaction due to the FX official/parallel market differential,” she said.

 

According to her, for the same transaction, Jetty fees, also charged in USD amount to N15.4 million at official forex rates and N30.8 million for petroleum marketers who source from the parallel market.

In addition, Jetty Berth is charged in dollars and comes to N2.2 million at official forex rate and N4.4 million at parallel market rate, while port dues, charged in dollars by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), which are charged in dollars, come to N71.51 million at official FX rate and N142.796 million for marketers who source forex from the parallel market.

“DAPPMAN hereby calls on the government to establish a level playing field in the sector by giving petroleum marketers access to forex at the CBN exchange rate for their operations. This is a passionate appeal to the government as we can confidently state that accessing forex through the CBN window will significantly enhance capacity and facilitate seamless supply of PMS and birth a regime of sustainability in terms of storage, distribution, and supply across the nation,” she added.