By Emeka Ugwuanyi
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has appealed to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) not to delist its members from their customer express portals and also extend the deadline for processing of members’ licences from April to July, 2024.
The oil marketers made the appeal through a press statement signed by the Association’s National Public Relations Officer (PRO), Chief Chinedu Ukadike.
The customer express portals are portals used by oil marketers to access and pay for petroleum products in all the NNPC Ltd depots as well as private depots the NNPC Ltd use for products storage and throughputs.
Ukadike told TBI Africa magazine correspondent that the Association’s appeal becomes imperative in view of the fact that and that only 9,000 out of the 15,000 licences of members have been processed and the April 16 deadline for the licence processing had long passed with thousands of licences unprocessed. The implication of this deadline is that once the customer express portals are closed, the unprocessed licences will be delisted shutting thousands of members out of business.
In view of this, IPMAN is begging NNPC Ltd and NMDPRA to extend the deadline to July. IPMAN Spokesman said: “We are appealing that NMDPRA and NNPC Ltd should extend the deadline of delisting marketers to July, so that the two agencies would be able to reconcile and update their portals so that marketers will not be unduly marginalized. Currently, the NNPC Ltd portal is still closed because they are updating it, meanwhile, their deadline is 16th of April, 2024.”
With the NNPCL deadline of April 15, 2024, for marketers to renew their licences, the marketers who couldn’t renew their licences risk denial of access to the customer express portals, which enable them (marketers) to buy petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited.
IPMAN noted that extension of the deadline would enable marketers to reconcile their licences and reduce panic buying by members of the public, which is aggravating the present scarcity of petroleum products.
