The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) at the weekend said it has started discussing with foreign partners to refine crude oil abroad and import Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and Kerosene into the country.
It added that it has no intention to claim any subsidy payment from the Federal Government through the method.
IPMAN National Secretary Danladi Pasali, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, explained that should the Federal Government approve the intervention, it would be a temporal relief arrangement pending the improvement of the capacity of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC’s) refineries and the construction of greenfield refining entities.
According to him, the initiative was developed by the association’s new executives to assist the present administration to reduce cost in subsidy payment at the same time meet products’ demand. His words: “We urged the Buhari administration to support IPMAN in mobilising our foreign partners in importing petroleum products at no cost or without subsidies payment to government.
”We have done all our mathematics that through our new model of Crude Oil SWAP arrangement; we can wet the country with petrol and kerosene and still gain from the transactions,” Pasali said.
Nigeria is currently consuming about 35 million litres of PMS. But only 30 per cent of the amount can be refined by the four local refineries at full capacities. The IPMAN secretary said the association in the long run will construct two brand new refineries in the country with 400,000 barrel refining capacity with Blue Oil International.
He added that the association’s National President Mr. Chinedu Okoronkwo is in Lagos to monitor the distribution of the PMS to its members to stop its scarcity.
Pasali said with government’s cooperation, IPMAN members will stop fuel scarcity with their over 20,000 filling stations.
