Fuel scarcity may linger unless FG pays marketers bridging claims — IPMAN

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has urged the Federal Government to pay marketers their bridging claims to enable them to begin lifting petroleum products from the depots. The IPMAN Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Yakubu Suleiman said this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. IPMAN claims the Federal Government owes its members N500 billion as bridging claims also known as transportation claims. Suleiman also urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to convert the special allocation of products meant for cargo to IPMAN in order to quickly address the current shortage of fuel in the country.

“We are calling on the Nigeria downstream and mainstream regulatory authorities to try and pay our marketers their bridging claims as from today. This is important, so that as soon as we get the payment, we can give directives to marketers to start loading their trucks, so that they can start transporting petroleum products. We are calling on the authorities and the NNPC to quickly allocate a certain cargo of AGO for IPMAN to distribute it to their members to enable them fuel their trucks for accelerated bridging loading. There is no money to buy the product until the Federal Government pays our claims and assist in allocating a cargo of AGO to us to hasten loading from various loading deports,” Suleiman said.

Reacting to the claims by IPMAN, an official of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) who spoke under condition of anonymity said the Federal Government had been paying the marketers, though in batches. According to the official, IPMAN is one of our key stakeholders and we have a committee looking into issues bothering the association. IPMAN had in a news conference urged Nigerians to prepare for the worse fuel crisis unless the Federal Government prevails on NMDPRA to pay its members their outstanding bridging claims amounting to N500 billion. Most filling stations in Abuja were shut down at the weekend following scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, thereby, resulting to long queues. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), however, attributed the sudden appearance of fuel queues in parts of Abuja to low load-outs at depots.

A statement by Garba Muhammad, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department, NNPC had said this usually happened during long public holidays. Muhammad said another contributing factor to the sudden appearances of queues was the increased fuel purchases which were also common with returning residents of the FCT from the public holidays.