OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, has said members of its group would not partake in a call by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN to embark on a strike action over recent hike in the price of petrol by the federal government.
Speaking to journalists, PETROAN president, Dr Billy Gillis-Harry said the group would rather settle for a roundtable discussion.
The federal government through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, had jerked up petrol price between price band of between N140.80 and N143.80 for the month of July.
However, IPMAN in a statement said the new price regime was a surprise and did not favour its members.
He said that the government jerked up the depot price from N111.78 to N133.72k, and the pump price to N143.8 without considering marketers’ plights.
“We hold the opinion that only a round-table, stakeholders’ engagement between the various downstream group operators, the leadership of PPPRA, NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, will solve the problem”.
“While we are not happy, we do not think any street protest or shutting down our outlets will solve any problem. The position PETROAN members occupy in the petroleum value chain is critical so we need to tread with a lot of caution. Putting the whole retail space into confusion will induce more losses on us”.
“It is sad enough that only the PPPRA has been saddled with the task of determining the pump price of petrol and other refined products in Nigeria”, adding that the Agency should have conducted an extensive consultation with all stakeholders.
“We all feel the same pain – I mean with our sister unions and associations, but we in PETROAN considers the option of dialogue to ensure that all inputs of stakeholders are properly collated to determine the price of products,” Dr Harry said
He stated that there should be a complete price review, but stressed that it should not be left only in the hands of the PPPRA.
“That is our position, PPPRA should be preoccupied with the deregulation of the oil and gas sector,” he said.
