The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will sell petroleum products directly to marketers, it was learnt yesterday.
The middlemen in the chain are to be eliminated in one of the moves to combat fuel scarcity.
A meeting of the committee of stakeholders set up at the Presidential Villa reportedly took the decision yesterday.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, chaired the meeting at his office yesterday.
They predicated their decision on the rising price of crude oil which led to the increases price of petrol.
Although the NNPC is supposed to supply 50 per cent of the products to complement the marketers, no other group is able to import petrol now because of the price.
Its landing cost is N171 per litre and the Federal Government has said nobody should sell above N145.
The marketers stopped importing the product, making NNPC the sole importer since the removal of Petrol Support Fund (PSF) also known as subsidy.
A source close to yesterday’s meeting said: “We have already told them that it is only the NNPC that will be able to import the PMS. The marketers cannot import the PMS because of the cost of the crude oil.
“This has also caused the price of the PMS to increase. Thus, if the marketers import it at the rate at which they are selling it now, automatically they cannot sell it at N145 per litre.”
The Federal Government, it was learnt, resolved to supply products directly to the independent marketers to remove the middlemen in the distribution chain and reduce the cost of the petrol.
Owing to the decision, the Federal Government has removed the intermediary tDepot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), from who the independent marketers were getting the fuel.
One of the fundamental decisions that the meeting arrived at was that there will be no increase in the price of the petrol.
