Oil marketers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have said that prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol will drop if they start direct lifting of products from the Dangote Refinery.

The assurance came after a rise in prices of products, following the commencement of product lifting by the state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) from Dangote Refinery.

Prices of petrol had shot up to ₦950 per litre in Lagos State and its environs, while consumers in the North pay as much as ₦1,000 per litre.

However, while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Morning Brief, yesterday, the spokesperson for IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, said that marketers are now discussing with the refinery for a possible direct lifting of petrol.

He said: “It is very simple. It shows that liberalisation of the market is on course because there is no way the Dangote refinery will produce petrol in Nigeria without considering IPMAN as one of its strategic stakeholders.

“We were even thinking that one of his first points of call was to discuss with IPMAN and not NNPCL, because we can distribute every single drop of products produced by Dangote Refinery because we are situated in every nook and cranny of this country. We also possess about 85 per cent of filling stations in Nigeria.

MEANWHILE, the Coalition of Niger Delta Youth On Energy Reforms and Transparency in the Oil and Gas Sector has urged the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, to ensure that the Port Harcourt Refinery becomes operational before the end of September as he promised.

At a press briefing jointly addressed yesterday by Dickens A. Opu and Werigbelegha Zinake, the group lamented that despite the billions of naira that had been earmarked and disbursed for the functionality of the Port Harcourt Refinery, the refining plant remains non-operational.

The group expressed concern about the energy crisis in the country caused by the non-functionality of local refineries, continued dependence on the importation of petroleum products, and the resultant cost implications for the country.

The youths noted that the failure of the Kyari-led management of the NNPC Limited to revamp local refineries has further worsened the country’s energy crisis, impoverishing the people of the oil-producing Niger Delta who are forced to buy fuel at higher rates than most parts of the country.