TheCable

Oil marketers have signed an agreement which aims to ensure nationwide availability of petroleum products.

They include the Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

Lawal Danzaki, president of ADITOP, and Chinedu Okoronkwo, president of IPMAN, sealed the deal in Abuja.

At a media briefing on Wednesday after the deal was signed, the IPMAN chairman said the partnership would further strengthen the synergy between both associations. 

“The major filling stations and tankers you see across the country are the combined efforts of ADITOP and IPMAN,” Okoronkwo said. 

“We believe that this cooperation would ensure that petroleum products reach every corner of Nigeria.”

He added that the agreement would put an end to the issue of strikes in the oil and gas sector.

Also speaking, Dansaki emphasised that the collaboration would guarantee the delivery of petroleum products to filling stations. 

“They own the filling stations and we own the trucks. The synergy will help us and help them to make sure that all their products are delivered to their stations,” he said. 

“Before now, we were doing it independently. They do their own and we do our own. But now, with this crisis of petroleum scarcity, we found it very expedient to come together to collaborate.”

In February, petrol scarcity had surfaced in Nigeria following the importation of off-spec petrol into the country.

Abubakar Maigandi, vice-president of IPMAN, had told Nigerians that petroleum products would be available amid the off-spec petrol saga, while the federal government had promised urgent measures to end scarcity.

Meanwhile, amid the Russia-Ukraine war and high inflation in Nigeria, the country is currently experiencing a spike in the price of diesel, which the federal government has attributed to a “global trend”.