The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has confirmed that most oil marketers have ceased importing petrol into the country due to the sufficient supply provided by the Dangote refinery.
According to The Cable , Abubakar Garima, IPMAN’s national president,confirmed this on Monday.
Garima said the refinery has been consistently refining petroleum products — including during the festive season — and it has prevented petrol scarcity across the country.
“The fuel is available everywhere. So if the fuel is available everywhere, then what is the need of importing?” Garima asked.
“We independent petroleum marketers already carry 85 percent of the retail outlets in the country.
“So if they put Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) and Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), they have only 15 percent.”
He said IPMAN is best positioned to determine whether petrol importation is necessary because “we are the owners of the filling stations”.
“Sometimes some people will be very funny and say, let’s start importing. To import what? What are they going to import? That is the issue,” the IPMAN president said.
Furthermore, he called on the federal government to encourage Dangote refinery to scale up production so as to attract more foreign investment and encourage the establishment of additional refineries in the country.
He also called on the government to help oil marketers build more refineries, stressing the need for job creation amid high unemployment.
“More refineries are coming. By next year, you will see a lot of refineries,” Garima said.
He added that beyond Dangote’s ongoing export of refined petroleum products, Nigeria should begin taking steps to become a petroleum product exporter — rather than an importer — from next year.
On December 19, IPMAN announced its support for local crude refining, saying the continuous importation of petrol is not an acceptable parallel business model.
