The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria is poised for talks with Dangote Petroleum Refinery between Tuesday and Wednesday to finalise agreements on the cost and lifting of petrol from the plant.

It was learnt on Sunday that the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria had been asked by the $20bn Lekki-based refinery to resend its request for petrol lifting.

This came as PETROAN expressed optimism that the cost of petrol might reduce in the coming days once the competition in the downstream oil sector sets in fully, as marketers load the commodity from the refinery.

Meanwhile, IPMAN described the planned agreement with the Dangote refinery as a crucial step in the association’s ongoing efforts to facilitate the lifting of petroleum products, thereby contributing to the stability and efficiency of the country’s fuel supply chain.

Last week, the Federal Government granted permission to petroleum marketers to lift petrol directly from the Dangote refinery without going through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

The Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Naira-crude sale implementation committee, Wale Edun, had in a statement, said, “Moving forward, petroleum product marketers are now able to purchase PMS (petrol) directly from local refineries without the intermediary role of NNPC.

“Marketers are encouraged to initiate direct purchases from refineries on mutually negotiated commercial terms, which will promote competition and improve market efficiency.”

Providing an update on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, said the association hoped to meet with officials of the Dangote refinery for discussion as it is ready to commence a healthy business relationship with the refinery.

Ukadike, who spoke during an interview monitored by our correspondents on Arise TV, said the association had acquired tank farms to enhance its storage facilities, thus addressing a challenge that had previously hindered operations.

He said, “We hope to sit down with Dangote maybe Tuesday or Wednesday and if they give us a template or price, we will move to Dangote. I want to reassure you that we have all it takes to off-take whatever Dangote will give to us. I don’t know why they are dragging their legs to discuss with marketers, maybe it is politics.

“The more we take action in terms of distribution lines, the price will come down, we are not afraid of this competition, we have organised ourselves and are ready to compete because this is the survival of the fittest.

“The issue of not having tank farms is gone because we have addressed the issue and now have farm tanks and anywhere Dangote says they will give us our products, we will distribute them to our marketers.”

On his part, President PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, told The PUNCH his group had been asked to resend their request to lift petrol from the plant.

“We have written to them (Dangote) several times and they are fully aware of what PETROAN has been doing. One of the executive directors there called me to say that they are going to set up a meeting with us, so we are waiting for that to happen. Hopefully, we can do that this week.

“We are willing to take products from all of them, NNPC, traders, importers, Dangote refinery, modular refineries, etc. So, we are in that pursuit. We have not received confirmation of the meeting with Dangote yet, but we have been told to resend our request, which we have done.

“And I think that is a positive response compared to before when they were just keeping quiet. So, any moment from now PETROAN members should start lifting products from the Dangote refinery and it is good news for us and everyone,” Gillis-Harry stated.

On whether the price of petrol would drop in the future, the PETROAN president added, “The price can be knocked down to N700/litre; it depends on the volatility of the market and this does not always mean upward prices, it could also mean prices coming down.

“If we have massive supply and there is a lot of products in Nigeria, obviously everybody will be looking for just minimal profit. Our business is focused on turnover, so people may cut prices down.”

Meanwhile, Ukadike, the IPMAN spokesperson, stated that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had issued a bulk purchase license for independent marketers so that they could off-take from Dangote refinery.

“The NMDPRA has issued a bulk purchase license for independent marketers so that we can offtake from the Dangote refinery. We want this to take effect immediately. We have also been promised an import license so that we can import. These are the factors of deregulation.

“When you implement it, you have put all the stakeholders in the same line so that the competition will be healthy. It is not putting some people before others. How can we buy products at N1,040 and say there is competition? It is designed to edge us out and make us dependent on NNPC and its sources.

“The NMDPRA boss told our national president that we would be issued an import license on Friday. But you know all these processes have bureaucratic procedures. Before we didn’t have this chance but today, the situation has improved,” he noted.

On the debt owed to oil dealers by the NNPC, Ukadike said, “The NNPC boss has agreed to load out all our tickets that are in their system and unlock the money. Sometimes we get these monies from bank loans and when it is locked up, we incur bank charges which also affect the price of fuel.

“They haven’t loaded us out as I speak to you now; they have also not revealed the new price. It is only when they do that, that we will look at the remittance we are going to pay but our president insisted that since this money has been locked up with them, they should give us at the old price so that we can use it to cushion the bank charges and other expenses we have incurred so far.

“By Monday or Tuesday, the new price will be out and I will announce it. We don’t want that impression that independent marketers are selling higher than NNPC.”

Continuing, IPMAN sought the government’s assistance in financing by creating an energy bank to assist marketers following the huge cost of interest rates affecting price increases.

“We are working with security agencies to ensure that products are not stolen out of this country, and products meant for independent marketers go to their stations. Also, we are working to ensure there is nothing like adulteration.”

He said independent marketers were on the verge of collapsing because of the huge amount invested in buying one truck of 45,000 litres of petrol.