THE Federal Government has ordered oil marketers to negotiate with the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners to avert the planned suspension of operations by NARTO members with respect to the lifting of petroleum products nationwide beginning today (Monday).
It was gathered on Sunday that oil marketers and the executives of NARTO met about six times in the last two days, following the declaration of the petroleum products’ transporters to halt operations.
Our correspondent further gathered that the Federal Government through the downstream regulator and the petroleum ministry would meet with NARTO members, as well as other parties today (Monday) in Abuja to sort out the issues.
This came as independent marketers expressed worry over the continued crash of the naira against the United States dollar, as they stressed that the development could force the non-subsidised pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to hit N1,500/litre in coming days.
The dollar has been on the rise, hitting over N1,500 lately. Nigeria, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, is still importing petrol basically with the dollar. Although NNPCL has kept mute on subsidy, marketers said PMS was being subsidised, otherwise it would sell for about N1,500/litre not N600-N700/litre as sold currently.
On Friday, This newspaper reported that Nigeria might witness another round of fuel scarcity as NARTO had vowed to stop lifting petroleum products beginning today (Monday) due to the high cost of operations.
NARTO members have repeatedly raised concern over the high cost of diesel required to power their trucks for the transportation of petroleum products across the country.
Oil marketers had told our correspondent on Thursday that diesel prices were between N1,250 to N1,400/litre depending on the area of purchase.
NARTO’s President, Yusuf Othman, had in a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday, said the statement was an official announcement from the association’s headquarters that members of the group would park their trucks from Monday.
“Why? It is because what we spend on operations is more than what we get in total, both in local and bridging,” he stated.
But when contacted on Sunday to confirm if the group would still proceed with its plan, Othman said NARTO and oil marketers had been meeting since Saturday based on the orders of the Federal Government.
“We are discussing with the marketers and they have proposed some increase in the transportation arrangement, and right now we are discussing with our executives with a view to consider the matter.
“But you know this has nothing to do with the government because the government no longer has a hand in the payment of transportation for products. It is purely for marketers that we provide the services to,” he stated.
When told that NARTO had earlier stated in its statement that it wrote to the petroleum minister, Department of State Services and other agencies of the Federal Government agencies on the matter, Othman affirmed this but stressed that the letters were just to alert the government to intervene.
Commenting on the development, the President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, said he was aware of the letters from the tanker drivers, and noted that independent oil marketers had been interfacing with NARTO members not to suspend their operations.
He said, “We are aware of their plan to suspend operations from Monday and we’ve tried to convince them otherwise, but they said they will go ahead. And you know when they suspend operations there is nothing we can do, and this will cause fuel scarcity.