The Nigerian Oil and Gas Suppliers Association (NOGASA) warned on Tuesday that its members may be forced to withdraw their services following the unbearable high operating costs.

This is coming barely 24 hours after the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) commenced a strike action on similar issues.

NOGASA National President Bennett Korie, who made the call at a briefing in Abuja, particularly identified the unstable dollar rate as a major challenge for marketers.

According to him, there was a need for the government to adopt the N750/$2024 budget exchange rate benchmark as its official exchange rate.

He disclosed that most private and modular refineries are afraid to commence production as they are unsure of the right price to fix.

“At least their budget is at N750 to a dollar benchmark; let’s go with that for now. Let’s see if it will work. This is not a free-fall market; supply and demand are driving Nigerians crazy,” he said.

Also, he suggested a price cap on automotive gas oil (AGO), popularly known as diesel, stating that the product price also contributes to the increasing price of petrol.

His words: “Fix that diesel problem, then PMS will be stable. If NNPCL will keep the PMS price from June to date, is there anything wrong with doing it for AGO?

“So, let the government, if the government wants to be fair and wants to do the deregulation proper, the diesel too should go the same way PMS is going.

“Heavens will not fall if you sell AGO N650/litre. With the same magic that they have in PMS, the government should apply it to AGO, and then you should see things ease.

“You are aware of NARTO withdrawing their services; it was as a result of this high cost of diesel. You cannot go to Lagos to bridge to the north or anywhere in Nigeria with N1700 per litre of diesel.

“It is a suicide mission; no one will make a kobo. So we support NARTO’s struggle. The government should do whatever it can between now and tomorrow to address the situation so that we can start our operations.

On the other hand, Korie called for the reintroduction of the bridging claim to ameliorate subsidy removal hardship.

“Last year, the government stopped bridging. The government can reintroduce bridging (PEF) to reduce the hardship of subsidy removal because it will help because we understand how many trillions have been spent on subsidy, so there’s nothing bad if bridging is reintroduced; it will not take one-quarter of it.

“This is going to reduce the pressure on transportation costs,” he noted.

Meanwhile, he lamented the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims, saying, “Ast year, we were shouting, Pay us our PEF; till today, nobody has been paid; why hold the money? For some of them, their money is tied to that PEF. Millions! They can’t buy one litre of fuel again.”

To this end, he warned that if these compounding challenges are not addressed before February 2024, oil marketers may be forced out of business.

He said, “If something is not done from now until the end of this month, it will affect marketers. Depot owners are struggling to get money from the bank because the cost is high.

“To import one cargo, something you spent N1 billion on before, now you end up taking N15 billion. You will not even make a profit when you borrow N1 billion.

“So the government needs to do something; otherwise, from the first of next month, you will start seeing it.

“There is nothing like withdrawing service on its own; the service will go.” (Nigerian Tribune)

Update news