The marketers are registering as individual business owners
applying to get direct fuel supply from the oil refinery.
This is even as the Independent Petroleum Marketers
Association of Nigeria said it would continue talks with the company to get
bulk supply for its members who may not be able to buy a large volume of petrol
from the refinery.
The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, last
month disclosed that it would begin the sale of PMS in June, saying his
refinery would end the importation of petrol into Nigeria.
Speaking at the
recent Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, Dangote expressed
optimism about transforming Africa’s energy landscape.
“Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart
from gasoline and by sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks,
Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of a litre,” he
declared
“We have enough gasoline to give to at least the entire West
Africa, diesel to give to West Africa and Central Africa. We have enough
aviation fuel to give to the entire continent and also export some to Brazil
and Mexico.”
“We have started producing jet fuel, we are producing
diesel, and by next month, we’ll be producing gasoline. What that will do, it
will be able to take most African crude,” Dangote told the panel.
The words of Dangote appeared to have come as a soothing
balm to marketers who have not been able to import fuel for a long time.
To independent marketers, the news is heart-warming because
they have hitherto depended on third parties to get petrol at a higher cost for
their filling stations scattered across the country.
When he was speaking with our correspondent in May, the
National Vice President of IPMAN, Hammed Fashola, expressed happiness, saying
“the Dangote refinery can satisfy our needs as far as petroleum products are
concerned, especially petrol”.
The IPMAN leader expressed the eagerness of marketers to
start lifting fuel from the refinery, saying, “We are all waiting, we are eager
for the commencement of the lifting on petroleum products from Dangote
refinery, especially petrol”.
The marketer stressed
that the private refinery would put an end to fuel scarcity in Nigeria as the
product would no longer be imported.
Meanwhile, Fashola explained that IPMAN as a body is yet to
have an agreement with the Dangote refinery on the supply of premium motor
spirit, calling on the company to consider working directly with the
association instead of individuals.
He noted that IPMAN should be a beautiful bride before
Dangote for being in control of over 80 per cent of the filling stations in
Nigeria.
Fashola said plans had been concluded to meet Dangote for
discussions on possible price cuts. He said that they would meet with Dangote
to negotiate a discount through bulk purchases.
The IPMAN leader said, “We have our letter with them, we are
expecting their response, and we will surely do a follow-up. The letter was
sent about a month ago and we are going to follow up. We are just like a
ready-made market for Dangote. It is an advantage for him to have us in his
programme. I believe that he would like to have us.”
He added that the association would request a discount
during the meeting with Dangote.“You know when you come together as a group,
you have that negotiating power on your strength. There is no way we will not
negotiate for a discount. That is why we don’t encourage individual company
participation,” he stated.
While it appears the proposed meeting with Dangote has yet
to materialise, Fashola informed our correspondent on Sunday that individual
marketers are already applying for the product.
Asked if IPMAN had met with Dangote, he replied, “No, but we
have started registering individually with the company.”
Replying to whether the marketers were no longer interested
in meeting the company’s president, he said, “Discussion is still going on it.”
Contacted, the Executive Secretary of the Major Energies
Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, said he would not know whether
or not members of the association were already registering with Dangote.
“I have to ask, I am not sure. I don’t know. I don’t have
any information,” Isong tersely retorted.
There are speculations that the refinery might choose to
sell its petrol through a major marketer.
The company is currently selling its diesel through MRS, one
of the energy firms making up MEMAN.
“I can confirm to you that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has
entered a strategic partnership with MRS oil and gas stations to ensure that
consumers get to buy fuel at affordable prices in all their stations, be it
Lagos or Maiduguri,” the company’s spokesperson, Anthony Chiejina, said in
April.
When the Dangote refinery announced the commencement of
operations in January, the Executive Secretary of MEMAN, Isong, said that its
members had registered with the refinery.
“We have all registered with Dangote so that we can buy and
sell. All my members are registered with Dangote. Whenever the product is ready
and starts coming out, you will see it in our filling stations.
“I confirm that my members have registered with them. We
were waiting for the production to start and now it has started and they will
start discussing the commercial terms.
“So now, the commercial terms will be agreed with each
marketer and then they will buy from them,” Isong stated.
In January, the Dabgote Group, owners of the 650,000 barrels
per day capacity refinery confirmed the registration of oil marketers as its
distributors, stating, “Three prominent associations, that constitute 75 per
cent of the total market in Nigeria have been registered. The Depot and
Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, the Independent Petroleum
Marketers Association of Nigeria, and the Major Energies Marketers Association
of Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians are eagerly waiting to start having the
Dangote petrol in circulation, hoping that it would crash the current pump
price of the fuel which the masses majorly depend on for transportation and
individual power generation.