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HomeEnergyMarketers smuggling fuel out of Nigeria - NNPC

Marketers smuggling fuel out of Nigeria – NNPC

The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has accused fuel marketers of diverting and smuggling petroleum products out of the country.

Baru spoke yesterday while briefing newsmen on steps the government had taken to ease persistent fuel diversions around the country.

According to Baru, he had briefed the President on issues surrounding the fuel situation, including marketers diverting the product and selling above the cap of N145.
The NNPC boss said the crackdown on smugglers of petroleum products was the highpoint of his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday.

He said: “President Buhari has directed that we contain the situation. What I can assure is that Mr. President has already responded as part of the discussion we had yesterday.
“Part of my briefing to him was that there is still significant hoarding and diversion where trucks that are loaded to supply products to specific stations get diverted elsewhere as well as smuggled out of the country.

“Mr. President’s immediate response was to direct the boarder agencies as well as internally, the security and regulatory agencies to ensure that all trucks that are loading to deliver to the stations they are meant to deliver.”

Baru assured Nigerians that petroleum product was available, adding that in spite of high landing costs, the price of petrol would not increase.
“We need the people to understand that we have products, but the issue of diversion, smuggling, and profiteering have been brought to the fore.

“Appropriate sanctions would be meted out. Price would not increase despite landing costs of fuel. The landing cost goes with the Cost Insurance Freight (CIF) price of petrol.
“As of Friday, the CIF price was in the neighbourhood of $620 per metric tonne with the official exchange rate of N305 to the dollar, the loading cost should be N171.40 per litre.
“I urge marketers to do what they were doing before, which is selling below the cap of N139 to N145 per litre. If the landing cost is N171 and we sell to marketers at N133.28, they still have profit.

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“I urge them to make the lives of Nigerians more comfortable. There would be no price increase of petrol,” he reiterated.

He said the queues would disappear in two days, maximum, as about 13 vessels were presently discharging petroleum products at various seaports across the country.
He said the vessels had a total of 650 million litres, more vessels were expected to berth before the end of the week.

He urged Nigerians to stop patronising black marketers, as adequate products were available to serve all.

Commenting on allegation by marketers that government wants to increase the pump price due to the high landing cost, he described it as false.

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