Oil marketers have said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited portal used to purchase petrol has been shut against dealers, making it impossible for them to apply for the commodity purchase.

They said marketers are still awaiting over 90 million litres of petrol from the state-owned company. This is valued at about N79bn.

The PUNCH recalls that amid marketers’ complaints over their inability to order petrol, the NNPC confirmed the shutdown of its purchasing portal to our correspondent last month, giving its reasons.

According to NNPC spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, the company shut the portal due to a significant backlog.

Soneye explained that the shutdown became necessary to stop NNPC from holding marketers’ capital for too long.

“We have a significant backlog to address. The closure is intended to prevent us from holding marketers’ funds for an extended period,” Soneye had explained.

He, however, assured marketers that the portal would be reopened after the backlog had been reduced.

“It will be reopened once the backlog has been sufficiently reduced. We are working to address it as soon as possible,” he told our correspondent.

Marketers who spoke with our correspondent confirmed that NNPC was expediting actions to clear the backlogs as of the weekend.

Though NNPC did not disclose the value of the ‘huge backlogs’, independent marketers said they have over 2,000 tickets yet to be cleared with NNPC.

In an interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, said the association is still waiting for the portal’s opening.

“They are on it, our marketers are still loading petrol from the NNPC. I can’t confirm the price now because the portal is still shut down.

“We have more than 2,000 tickets for 45,000 litres (of petrol). That is 45,000 multiplied by 2,000, you can now know the number of million litres it will be. This is just an estimate, you know I don’t work with NNPC and I don’t know what is on their system,” Ukadike stated.

He disclosed that a 45,000-litre truckload of PMS is around N39.5m, making N79bn when multiplied by 2,000.

The Petroleum Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria also confirmed that its members could not access the NNPC purchasing portal.

PETROAN President, Billy Gillis-Harry, confirmed this in a phone conversation with our correspondent.

“The portal shutdown affects us too, we are all buying from NNPC,” he said briefly.

Meanwhile, the marketers noted that they have since been patronising private depot owners, who sell petrol to them at a premium.

This, they said, informed why the product is more expensive in their filling stations than in outlets owned by the NNPC and the major marketers.

Our correspondent gathered that the marketers usually bid for PMS through the NNPC portal.

According to them, payments will be made through the same channel while the marketer waits for months to get the product.

Independent marketers told The PUNCH that they paid for petrol but were not supplied after three months.

During an interview with The PUNCH in January, the National Vice President of IPMAN, Hammed Fashola, made a similar allegation which was denied by Soneye.

Fashola had asked the Federal Government to review the current distribution pattern to give priority to IPMAN members.

Fashola said, “We buy products from NNPC cash and carry. We don’t enjoy any credit facility with the NNPC. There are times when we pay for products, and you don’t get the products for two or three months. You have your money in the coffers of NNPC, which means they are trading with our money.

“If I am not exaggerating, we should be talking of over N300bn, when you consider the number of marketers all over Nigeria. Our money is always there, trapped, while we keep struggling to get fuel. The three days will turn into months if they don’t have products or they are out of stock, you have to wait, and your money will be there.”

At the moment, the marketers said they want to buy petrol directly from Dangote to ensure price parity. (The PUNCH)