The Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers
Association of Nigeria, Mosimi, Ogun State, Mr.
Adeleke Bada, has agreed with the former Minister of
Petroleum, Prof. Tam David-West, that petrol can sell
for N40 per litre.
He says this is possible if the country refines all
crude oil in the nation's refineries.
Bada said this in an interview with journalists
shortly after the association's Annual General
Meeting in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Bada, who was flanked by other members of the
executive of the association, was reacting to the
advice given by David-West to the President-elect
to reduce the pump price to N40.
He said, "Reducing the price of petrol to N40 a litre
is possible only if the refineries are working. If you
look at the nature of the market presently, that isn't
realistic. Do we have the refineries?
"The only reason that it can be possible is when we
have our own refineries and we do not export our
crude oil for processing. If the processing is done in
Nigeria, then it can be sold at the rate of N40, but
not until all the refineries are fixed."
He, however, blamed the non-compliance of sale of
petrol at N87 per litre by some petroleum marketers
on the expenses incurred by the marketers while
trying to get the fuel available for the use of the
masses.
He said the levies being paid by the marketers to
various regulatory associations and unions had
forced the marketers to increase the prices of fuel to
their desired amount.
He said, "The government has not increased the
price of fuel; it is still N87 per litre.
"But by the time you get to the depot, after paying
around N2.6m for your ticket, a lot of levies are still
to be paid; levies from PTD, IPMAN and all others.
Adding them all together with the cost of
transporting your trucks to the station, no one is
ready to run at a loss."
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