The Nigerian National Petroleum Limited Company has formally agreed to permit oil marketers, who operate under the auspices of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, to commence the lifting of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from its depot at a lower price.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has also committed to issuing import and off-taker licenses to the oil dealers to either import fuel directly or purchase products straight from the Dangote Refinery in line with the government plan to fully deregulate the oil sector.

This came after the association threatened to cease operations nationwide due to the high costs associated with loading petroleum products from NNPCL facilities.

IPMAN had revealed on Thursday that the cost of petrol from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to NNPC was about N898/litre, but noted that NNPC was selling the same product to independent marketers at N1,010/litre in Lagos.

The association, which controls over 70 per cent of filling stations nationwide, kicked against this and threatened to down tools, as it also demanded a refund from NNPC for earlier petrol supply payments made by its members.

The IPMAN national president, Abubakar Maigandi, who spoke during a live television interview on Thursday, argued that the price was higher than what NNPC paid for the product from the Dangote refinery.

He also noted that independent marketers? funds had been held by the national oil company for about three months.

According to him, NNPC purchased the product from the refinery at N898/litre but is asking marketers to buy it at N1,010/litre in Lagos; N1,045 in Calabar; N1,050 in Port Harcourt; and N1,040 in Warri.

?Our major challenge now is that independent marketers have an outstanding debt from the NNPC and the company collected products through Dangote at a lower rate, which is not up to N900, but they are telling us now to buy this product from them at the price of N1,010/litre in Lagos; N1,045 in Calabar; N1,050 in Port-Harcourt; and N1,040 in Warri,? Maigandi stated.

However, in a new agreement reached following a peace meeting facilitated by the Director General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Ajayi, the national oil firm has permitted the loading of products to cover the N15bn owed to the marketers.

The National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, revealed this in an interview with Sunday PUNCH on Saturday.

The national officer stated that the meeting was attended by a director from the NMDPRA and the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, making it easy to shift grounds to enable independent marketers to load products.

He said, ?We were invited by the Director of the Department of State Services to resolve the ongoing issue between the association and the NNPCL.

?The meeting was on the non-compliance of selling PMS to IPMAN by Dangote Refinery and the problem we are having with NNPCL in terms of pricing. Based on this, the director of DSS invited us and brokered peace.

?Among what was agreed upon after a meditation process led by our National President Abubakar Maigandi, NNPCL has agreed to make some reductions and allow independent marketers to load out those tickets that amount to N15bn immediately.?

Ukadike further disclosed that the NMDPRA agreed to issue IPMAN import licenses to be able to embrace full deregulation in the sector.

When contacted, the NMDPRA spokesperson, George Ene-Ita, claimed not to be aware of the meeting. ?I am sorry, I am not aware of any meeting or license approval. I was not part of it.?

Meanwhile, the NMPDRA has resolved to make a payment of N10bn to the oil marketers as outstanding payments under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund. (Sunday PUNCH)

Update news