With over 9,000 oil marketers still facing fuel constraint, Nigerians may lose their operating licenses.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has now been encouraged to extend its final license renewal date to July by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
Additionally, IPMAN requested that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority grant its members access to the 9,000 licenses that have already been completed.
In a statement released on Thursday in Abuja and signed by Chief Chinedu Ukadike, National Public Relations Officer, the association made the desire known.
Remember that IPMAN bemoaned in a statement on Sunday the sluggishness with which the NMDPRA was renewing the licenses of marketers?
Marketers that wish to purchase petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited had until April 15, 2024, to renew their licenses or face having their access to their customer express portals revoked by the NNPCL.
However, IPMAN asked for an extension, claiming that it would allow marketers to reconcile their licenses and lessen public panic buying, which would worsen the current petroleum product shortage.
The statement said as follows: “The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has informed us that they have already processed over 9,000 of the 15,000 licenses they are expected to process for our members within this time frame. The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria is aware of the latest developments in the downstream sector of our petroleum industry and wishes to state this.
“Marketers are expediting the licensing process in order to prevent their customer express portals for the purchase of petroleum products from NNPC Retail Limited from closing.
We thus use this chance to request that the NNPC Retail Limited and NMDPRA management extend the deadlines for delisting marketers from their express portals and release the processed licenses, respectively. If our request is approved, it will reduce public anxiety over panic buying and prevent the current petroleum product shortage from getting worse.
“The release is to appeal to the NNPCL and NMPDRA to please extend the final deadline to July so that it would enable them to reconcile the licences so that they will not be unduly shut out of the portal and that is IPMAN appeal,” Ukadike clarified in a phone conversation.
