GavelSlam:
The depot has been in a state of disrepair for 14 years and you guys remained silent as it helps you make that obscene profit you just love.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

dannytoe:
Buhari is leaving aso-rock in 2019, no going back.

Vivere:

I have work experience in the downstream oil industry, so I actually know what I am talking about. Take diesel, for example.

Diesel was fully deregulated years ago. Yet how many of those marketers import diesel on a regular basis, or have enough funds to carry out the business? A large number of them did initially, but many gave up a few years down the line.

As for PMS, as long as a marketer gets stock from a known approved source at an official discounted rate, he is duty bound to sell at the approved retail price. It is a question of ethics. NNPC imported the fuel, and not the marketers.

Now, please don't bother to respond. You would be doing me a great favour by staying out of my mentions.

thambolo:


Sprumbabafather, I greet you.
Let us assume we the Igbos are being marginalized. The simple question is ‘whose fault?’ The problem with us is lack of unity; the Igbos don’t have one voice. When Mr. A is saying ‘Yes’, Mr. B will be saying ‘No’ because of his selfish interest.
Not less than one month now, the federal government signed $1b for the fight of Boko Haram and a few days later the Niger Deltans began to agitate for theirs. One voice: irrespective of whether the voice is for a good cause or not.
The Enugu NNPC depot at Emene is just a stone throw away from my house in Enugu. I know the havoc the shutting down of that depot has caused; from the issue of unemployment down to the scarcity of petroleum products in the South-East.
Imagine shutting down the Abuja NNPC depot or the Warri depot... And the only reason for shutting Enugu NNPC depot is due to pipeline vandalism. BIG LIE!!!
Are the pipelines used to supply other depots invincible ? Don’t they vandalize other pipelines ? Can’t the measures put in place to safeguard other pipelines be administered to the only NNPC depot in the South-East ?
It is quite unfortunate that majority ( though not all ) of the Igbos are self-centered...beginning from the deputy senate president,who is from Enugu.
I remember reading somewhere ( online newspaper ) in 2014/2015, that measures will be put in place to revive the Enugu NNPC depot. Only for a fresh government to come into power and PUFFFF!!!!
So many things I would have love to say about this topic... please, let’s do something about it

EternalTruths:
Pls, don't feel offended that I am asking this question because I want to learn.

1) Was there anytime, independent marketers were allowed to import fuel without passing through NNPC.?

2) Do marketers import diesel without going through NNPC.?

Vivere:

Hi, for you to import diesel you need to be registered with NNPC. You are also given the guidelines for importation. You liaise with them at various steps of the way. However, NNPC does not dictate the price at which you sell your diesel.

Diesel prices fluctuated quite a bit this year. At the beginning of this year it was as high as 220 per litre. But a few months back, diesel was 160 - 180 per litre. Now it is about 200 per litre, within most stations in the SW. I don't know about other parts of the country.

Vivere:

Abi, o! Instead of reporting the private depot owners to DPR, they are buying fuel from them at 145 and selling at 250 per litre! Cunning man die, cunning man bury am!

Meanwhile, have you noticed that the stations being shut down for selling at 250 naira, are the ones that loaded fuel direct from NNPC Depot as documented on the manifest?

Those pointing accusing fingers at private depot owners, are yet to name and shame them, publicly.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

Vivere:

Hi, for you to import diesel you need to be registered with NNPC. You are also given the guidelines for importation. You liaise with them at various steps of the way. However, NNPC does not dictate the price at which you sell your diesel.

Diesel prices fluctuated quite a bit this year. At the beginning of this year it was as high as 220 per litre. But a few months back, diesel was 160 - 180 per litre. Now it is about 200 per litre, within most stations in the SW. I don't know about other parts of the country.

EternalTruths:



So why can't the government allow such for the petrol section.

EternalTruths:
So why can't the government allow such for the petrol section.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

wristbangle:
You seems to know much about the downstream oil supply chain.

Can you explain how the structures looks like from NNPC to Retail PMS outlets and how much oil marketers are getting from NNPC abi na DDPMAN, MOAN or PPMC?

Vivere:


Guy, this is called consultancy! There are charges for such info. Give me a few hours, I might be able to dig up a graphic representation from my old files...

nairavsdollars:
But the South East claim they have Oriental oil. Why cant they just build a refinery and sell oil at the price they want?

RIPEnglish:
This is only one people fault, buhari is should suppose to went and resignations.

EternalTruths:




The problem is not lack of unity but informing people about the problem.


You knew that the depot have issues but never created a thread for it on Nairaland so that we can get it across to appropriate authorities.

You are part of our problem.

Xano:




Interesting

PH depot sells between #143-145 per litre. Trucking(cost inclusive)from PH to Southeast(Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra) is about 6-7hours. Now, calculate the profit for filing station owner.

Southeast oil marketes, most sell at #143-145 per litre when there is no scarcity.

This December, like other previous years, except 2013, there were days of no PMS at PH and Warri depot.

Source for information before you criticize.

omohayek:
What a ridiculous article, complete with all the lazy cliches so loved by Nigeria's pathetic excuses for journalists (including the usual nonsense about someone or other "storming" something). Only in failed states like Nigeria does it continue to be believed that price caps can be made to work: the only sensible long-term solution to Nigeria's fuel shortages is to completely deregulate prices and participation in the sector, otherwise you end up like Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves, yet its people line up daily for items as basic as toilet paper while its children are suffering from mass starvation.

It really is a shame that no Nigerian "journalists" seem to have even a glancing acquaintance with rudimentary economics.

Sprumbabafather:
Is it impossible to repair the NNPC depot at Emene which had broken down since the past 14 years? Why must south east marketers be made to buy petrol in Warri, PH and Lagos.

This is marginalisation.

So101:
you are funny oh! So if they buy at 145 they should sell at 240? that is a pure definition of exploitation do the maths! 95naira profit per litre meaning they make 3.8million a day on a good day to the detriment of the poor! if you can’t do the business it’s not by force but don’t come and be exploiting people and then play victim it’s a service not a get rich quick scheme

PaChukwudi44:


kachikwu is not the minister of pertoleum

ChidiAlaigbo:


Mr KNOW-IT-ALL there is something called POLITICAL IMPACT!!!

The government knows about deregulation but we are NIGERIANS (REAL NIGGAS) and we dont like the truth. The government is scared of its "people".

thambolo:

I am an Igbo guy. I accept that I have been part of the problem and it will gladden my heart to be part of the solution now.
But I rather find it preposterous that as enlightened as you sound, you never knew of a matter as serious as this, for the past one decade.
Well, that’s by the way. What is now the way forward?

Vivere:

In order to answer this question, you have to examine a lot of factors. First, the transportation infrastructure in Nigeria is very weak. Movement of large numbers of passengers, goods and cargo is still carried out over long distances by road, instead of by rail or water transport, as it is done in many countries.

So any fluctuation in the price of fuel, affects the prices of goods, services and transport in a highly disproportionate sense, and fuels inflation.

Secondly, it takes a lot of funds to even import let's say - a 20,000 MT of PMS from Rotterdam or any of the ports in Europe. There are smaller refineries on the West African coast like in Tema, Ghana and Abidjan, but these produce small or inadequate quantities of petrol, compared to the quantity required in various West African countries. Importation of petroleum products is also dollar-denominated. So as long as your naira continues to fluctuate against the dollar, or the disparity in exchange rate remains high in favour of the dollar, your landing cost will remain high. This will also spike inflation and increase in cost of goods and services.

It takes tons of money to import petroleum products. Initially when diesel was deregulated, a lot of depot owners and marketers got loans from banks, to import small quantities from refineries on the West African coast. A number of them were not able to pay back such loans, due to mismanagement of funds or outright theft of their products. But by the time demand for diesel slowed down, and the market dropped, a lot of them could not cope. Some depots have been empty for over a year, as their bankers refused to grant them further loans. Some are even trying to sell off their depots, at huge sums, while others who used their depot as collateral have had those depots taken over by their creditors.....

Now, instead of importing fuel, many of the private depot owners get allocations of fuel from NNPC/PPMC and store in their tanks, to resell to independent marketers, with their large network of stations. So, if the private depots are getting stock from NNPC at approved, discounted rates, why would the marketers who also get stock from such depots sell at exorbitant rates? Are the depot owners short-changing them? Or extorting money from them? They need to speak up and shame them! Afterall, NNPC/PPMC has been the one importing different cargoes of petrol, for the past 3 months, and not the marketers!

Deregulation worked for diesel, because the number of trucks and machinery using diesel are fewer than the number of vehicles using petrol. Not only that, there has been increased use of natural gas, to fuel industrial generators and turbines, in manufacturing companies and industries, which has translated to a reduced demand for diesel.

In my view, petrol can be deregulated but quite a few things need to be put in place, before it can be done, so that it does not lead to unwanted consequences that can not be contained, or prices that spiral out of control. This was what led to the notion of subsidising fuel prices, in the first place. When Buhari came in, the subsidy was said to be abolished, when petrol prices were increased from 85 naira to 145 naira. But now the rising exchange rate and increase in international oil prices, have pushed fuel prices back up.

Every country subsidises something for its citizens. That notion of letting everything be subjected to a free fall of the currency, or to market forces, does not augur well, in all areas. Some countries subsidise transportation. Others subsidise agriculture or healthcare. The most important thing is to ensure subsidies get to the targeted areas, and are not blindly hijacked by an unscrupulous set.

A long term solution would be to implement refining of crude locally, so that adequate fuel can be obtained at a cheaper rate, which reduces the need to subsidise it to an affordable level for citizens.

wristbangle:


Hmmm bro! U seems not to understand the greed of oil marketers. PMS is the most consumed refined petroleum petrol and by law of demand/supply, the price may shoot to N300 if care is not taken which in turn would affect commodity price in market.

I would have support total deregulation but these thieves will make life unbearable for the masses.