The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that their members would begin importation of fuel independent of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) once the blueprint of the Petroleum Industry Act is drawn and released to them.
Speaking with New National Star, Mike Osatuyi, the National Operations Controller of IPMAN, said that members and other major marketers in the Nigerian oil and gas downstream sector could not start immediate importation of fuel until they were given the go ahead by the federal government. Last Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Bill into law. The PIA is set to reform the operations of the oil and gas sector.
In June, Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum, had said that as soon as the PIB was signed into law, fuel subsidies will be removed. Osatuyi said that this and other reforms cannot happen immediately because of systems the government has to put in place to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy. “Let us wait for the blueprint which will soon be rolled out. But definitely, the government has definitely said that they will not increase prices immediately,” he said.
“We are not going to start importing because they have not given us the go-ahead, but they will give us at the cut-off date before we can go anything.” The signing of the PIB is coming on the heels of the divestment of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the country. The government hopes that the reforms the PIA will bring will increase the revenue generated by the sector which is still the biggest contributor to the country’s economy.