- IPMAN and MEMAN gear up for product lifting, anticipating lower fuel prices and increased employment opportunities.
- NNPC’s promise of product availability and potential price reduction upon refinery restart.
According to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN), fuel costs in Nigeria will drop once the Port Harcourt Refinery commences operations. The national petroleum company of the country had promised that the refinery would begin operations in 2 weeks. As a result, marketers are gearing up to receive products from the facility.
Both associations also asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to keep to schedule as they prepare to load products from the refinery. The NNPC had promised that operations in the refinery would begin by month’s end.
“We did a mechanical completion of the (Port Harcourt) refinery, that was what we said in December. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it. I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks,” the chairman of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, revealed last week.
In an interview with our correspondent, the National President, of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, revealed that IPMAN had been informed of the development and prepared to begin product lifting.
“As independent petroleum marketers, immediately we received the information, we told all our members to start preparing for loading, especially those in the South-South region of the country, because it is closer to them. So at any time they (NNPCL) say we should come and start loading, we are ready. We are just waiting for them to start,” the IPMAN president stated.
“Price reduction is obvious when they start releasing products, and there will be availability because it would serve as support to the imported products. So we are expecting a price change, for no matter how small the reduction is, it is still a reduction. Also, the commencement of operations there will create more employment for Nigerians,” he added.
Additionally, in response to the NNPC’s announcement, Clement Isong, the Executive Secretary of MEMAN, indicated that major oil marketers have purchased products from NNPCL’s trading arm. He also noted that this branch of the national oil corporation would have jurisdiction over the products produced at the newly rehabilitated Port Harcourt refinery.
“Sure, we have been buying from the trading arm of NNPCL and we will continue once products from the refinery are being released. On price reduction, this is going to be marginal, because the product is being produced in Nigeria,” the Executive Secretary stated.
