The Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria on Tuesday appealed to the Federal Government to pay its outstanding N250 billion subsidy claims owed to the marketers as at 2014.
Obafemi Olawore, the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, in an interactive session with energy correspondents in Lagos, said the money was to ensure sustainable importation of petroleum products.
Olawore said: “The amount in question was an outstanding payment to marketers on subsidy, which includes interest rates and foreign exchange.
“As at the end of 2014, the amount in question stood at N250 billion.”
Olawore said a directive had been given to MOMAN members to conform to the new pump price of N87 per litre of petrol from N97, as directed by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The marketer said about 85 per cent of its members had already reversed their pump price to reflect the new price, adding that others would soon follow suit.
He said: “We are not against the reduction of petrol pump price to N87 per litre but government should also increase the marketers’ margin in petroleum products.
“The marketers’ margin has been stagnating since 2007 and no reason was given by the minister for the reduction of the petrol pump price.
“Only N4.60k has been given as margin to the marketers per litre since 2007, which has not changed.
“The N10 reduction was on depot price and not the marketers’ margin.
“We were not consulted but rather made to believe that it is the responsibility of the minister to announce a reduction or increase in the pump price in line with Section 6 Clause 1 of the Petroleum Act.”
Olawore urged the minister to expedite action on the committees she promised to set up to look into the complaints of marketers over their margin.
He said MOMAN had agreed that some agencies of government should take stock of the products in their tank for adequate refund.
According to the MOMAN scribe, the agencies are the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Department of Petroleum Resources, Marine Inspectors, Audit and the Ministry of Finance.
He urged the agencies to expedite action on dipping the stock and signing the papers, so as to allow marketers load products from their storage tanks to various stations across the country.
Olawore added that if the agencies involved did not sign the documents, marketers could not load products because they had to ensure the quantum of petrol products they had in stock was taken.
He said this would enable government to refund the differential to the marketers.
Olawore said the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil and gas sector remained the only solution to drive the petroleum sector.
He said for government to avoid issues, this was the best time for it to deregulate the sector,, when prices were low.
“It will now be left for the marketers to come up or down,” he added.
Olawore noted that the devaluation of the naira contributed significantly to the increase in petrol pump price in Nigeria, saying that if the naira had not been devalued, the petrol pump price would have come down.
He said another reason why fuel price would not come down in Nigeria, compared to other countries, were issues of freight.
He said this had been on the rise.
The MOMAN scribe added that the comatose refineries were also a factor that had hindered fuel price from falling.
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