Depot Owners: We Do Not Buy Petrol from NNPC on Credit

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) has stated that its members do not transact business with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on credit.

The Executive Secretary of DAPPMA, Mr. Olufemi Adewole said in a statement at the weekend that the association was not aware of any indebtedness to NNPC by its members.

“It is an undisputable fact that DAPPMA members have paid for petrol supply (with bank funds) for over one month, the value of which is in excess of N90 billion, yet PPMC/NNPC had no cargo to allocate to them. As such how can we be held responsible for hoarding?” said Adewole.

“We again reject any attempt to blame marketers for the shortfall in supply as it is not our making since NNPC has been the sole importer since October 2017. Marketers have continued to sacrifice to keep the country wet with fuel despite over N600 billion debt owed our members and over N800 billion owed marketers as a whole by the federal government,” he added.

The marketers were responding to claims by the NNPC that they are indebted to the corporation to the tune of N26 billion.

DAPPMA had said that its members had fully paid the NNPC through its subsidiary, the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) in advance for petroleum products in excess of 500,000 metric tonnes, or about 800 million litres, but that their depots and tank farms were still empty because supplies had not got to them.

The marketers had also blamed the unending fuel crisis on the challenges in the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme within which it claimed some participants failed in their deliveries, rising price of petrol in the international market and the high interest rates charged by banks in Nigeria.

But the NNPC said in its reply to DAPPMA that while it made efforts to meet their product demands, they still owed it N26.7 billion as at December 21, 2017, adding that based on this, DAPPMA’s claims were unjustifiable and unfounded.

“NNPC wishes to affirm that it has supplied appreciable volume to DAPPMA, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to rid the challenges currently being experienced in the supply and distribution of petroleum products in the country.

“NNPC regrets that DAPPMA which members had taken receipts of products from PPMC, a subsidiary of NNPC and owe the company to the tune of N26.7 billion as at December 21, 2017, has the audacity to indict NNPC unjustifiably,” said the statement from Ughamadu.

It added that: “The statement by DAPPMA that the current hiccups in the supply of products was due to the inability of the DSDP partners of NNPC to deliver on their business obligations is unfounded and self-indicting as many of DAPPMA members patronise the same DSDP international counterparts as the corporation.”