Hopes that marketers would soon resume fuel importation after the Federal Government last week agreed to pay all their outstanding subsidy claims may be dashed as marketers have expressed concern over the seriousness of the government to fulfill its promises.
THISDAY learnt that most of the marketers and other independent importers of petroleum products are worried that the government may not fulfill its promises, going by previous experiences.
Some of the marketers told THISDAY that the government was fond of convening stakeholders’ meetings and making promises each time there was fuel crisis, only to renege on such agreements as soon as marketers resumed importation and the crisis was over.
Government last week paid N32.4 billion to the marketers and promised to, this week, pay another N41 billion foreign exchange differentials they incurred in the course of importing fuel.
THISDAY also gathered that there is no assurance that banks will open lines of credit for importers of fuel, a situation which the marketers say will make fuel importation difficult even if government settles all outstanding claims.
Though the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, had promised to meet with bankers last Tuesday to plead with them over the situation, the meeting was postponed till last Friday, according to the minister.
But investigation revealed that the meeting did not hold as most bankers, who spoke with THISDAY on Friday, said they were not aware of such a meeting.
A top official of the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) told THISDAY that apart from the fear of insincerity on the part of the government, there is no indication that banks will agree to resume funding of fuel importation.
“Most of us have small outstanding claims. For instance, my claim is less than N300 million and cannot go anywhere. It is small; it cannot bring in even one vessel. So, the major issue is the banks. We don’t have any assurance that the banks will finance us,” he said.
An official of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that even if all these issues were addressed, they were yet to get approval from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to import fuel for the first quarter of 2010.
He said if PPPRA gave them approval, they would still require import permit from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) before they could start the process of opening letters of credit for first quarter importation and the whole process could take six weeks.
But the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr. Abiodun Ibikunle, told THISDAY last night that some of the major marketers were yet to fully activate the previous approval given to them.
“They don’t apply to us as MOMAN; they apply as individual companies. They applied to us and we gave them approval for the fourth quarter of 2009. Many got allocations but many could not meet up. Even those that imported could not exhaust their approval. In addition, in December we gave them another approval – AP, Chevron, Total, Mobil – all of them got approval. So, who is the major marketer that is complaining of approval? Is it the one that refused to import anything for the Q4 (fourth quarter)?” he said.
Spokesman of PPPRA, Mr. Yusuf Muazu, also told THISDAY yesterday that the marketers were yet to fully activate their import approval.
“After giving them the fourth quarter approval in November 2009, we went out of our way in December to give them approval for additional 1.5 million metric tonnes, which is equivalent to two months’ fuel sufficiency. Meanwhile, we are processing the first quarter approval and it will be ready any moment from now,” he said.
A source close to MRS Oil & Gas Limited confirmed that as some of the 15 major and independent marketers were unable to fully activate the import approval given to them in November, others with good track record of performance were given additional approval in December to import products.
According to him, after MRS exhausted the initial approval to import 180,000 metric tonnes, the company was given another approval in December to import additional 120,000 metric tonnes.
Ajumogobia met with the marketers and other stakeholders in Lagos last week where he promised that the government would settle all their outstanding claims.