Nigeria’s fuel marketers have pushed back hard against claims that petrol sales could be stopped, with industry officials saying the report is inaccurate and misrepresents recent discussions around pricing and deregulation. Musa Yahaya Mai Kifi, Financial Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said the suggestion that motorists would soon be unable to buy petrol is “not true” and has been “taken out of context.”
IPMAN rejects claim of a petrol sales shutdown
- Mai Kifi dismissed the circulating report that petrol sales in Nigeria would be halted, calling it a false interpretation of what was said.
- He argued that Nigeria has moved beyond a system in which the government sets petrol prices, saying the present framework allows marketers to source and distribute fuel under more open market conditions.
- Mai Kifi said the current structure gives marketers the ability to buy petrol from anywhere in the world, bring it into Nigeria for sale, or export it to other countries, pointing to Dangote Refinery’s exports of refined products—including shipments to the United States—as an example of how the system is operating.
On the question of Nigerian crude oil supply to Dangote Refinery, Mai Kifi outlined what he described as a more disciplined pricing approach to reduce volatility across the supply chain. He said any arrangement for supplying crude should be accompanied by linked pricing terms for downstream products and for retailers or marketers purchasing from the refinery.
“The solution is that if Dangote is to receive Nigeria’s crude oil, there should be an agreement,” Mai Kifi said. “If we supply the crude at a certain price, Dangote should sell refined products at an agreed price, and marketers who buy from the refinery should also sell at an agreed price; that is the only solution.”
Marketers say losses, not profiteering, are driving the debate
- On Tuesday, Chinedu Ukadike, IPMAN’s National Publicity Secretary, rejected assertions that fuel marketers are profiteering.
- Ukadike argued instead that many operators are already under pressure from financial losses linked to frequent reductions in market prices.
- He warned that efforts to impose or dictate pump prices in a deregulated market would be resisted by industry participants.
The officials’ comments come as Nigeria continues to grapple with how to manage fuel pricing and supply stability, with the marketers’ association arguing that predictability should be created through contractual pricing arrangements rather than government-set retail prices.
