Kehinde Fajobi
The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi, has reassured Nigerians that ongoing negotiations with Dangote Refinery to begin the direct loading of petrol from its 650,000-barrel-per-day facility are nearing completion.
Speaking at the inauguration of a monitoring and surveillance taskforce on Wednesday in Abuja, Maigandi stated that discussions with Dangote Refinery are progressing well. He expressed optimism that the agreement would be concluded soon.
“We are glad to announce that we will soon conclude arrangements with Dangote Refinery to lift PMS from the refinery. We have received our money back from NNPCL and are now trying to negotiate with other partners, namely Dangote. We are still negotiating with Dangote to see how we can begin to get products through him directly,” Maigandi said.
The IPMAN president also confirmed that a pricing issue with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had been resolved, allowing the association to focus on securing a deal with Dangote.
Negotiations with Dangote Refinery, Maigandi added, began following an intervention by the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had been instructed to issue IPMAN a licence to import and off-take products from the refinery.
The move comes after calls from oil marketers for direct loading of petrol from the refinery, following the government’s full deregulation of the petroleum sector. However, there are concerns that the current output from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery may not be enough to meet domestic demand, which has led marketers to consider importing petrol to supplement supply from the refinery.
Further reports indicate that a high-level meeting between IPMAN and Dangote officials earlier this week ended without a final agreement, with another round of talks scheduled for Thursday.
During his address, Maigandi also underscored the association’s commitment to supporting the government in fighting economic saboteurs, such as oil thieves and vandals, whose activities harm the nation’s economy. He highlighted the creation of the new taskforce as a significant step in this effort.
“Our constituency, IPMAN, plays a key role in the downstream oil sector, contributing more than 80 per cent of the distribution chain. This is why the current executive committee saw the need to create an internal mechanism to address the harmful activities of economic saboteurs. The taskforce will help clear the bad name we’ve received from Nigerians,” he said.
Maigandi noted that the taskforce would be active across all 36 states and would hold accountable those attempting to sabotage the government’s efforts, ensuring that IPMAN members are not implicated in such activities.