The
Department of Petroleum Resources has shut 23 private petroleum
products’ depots nationwide for selling petrol to marketers above the
ex-depot price of N77.66 per litre.
The DPR
said the 23 shut depots were closed on Friday after investigations by
its special team revealed that they were involved in undue profiteering.
It said the sealed depots were mainly in Lagos, except two that were located in Warri and three in Calabar.
The
agency, in a statement signed by its Director, Mordecai Ladan, said,
“The clampdown on the private depots followed the report of a special
investigation team set up by the DPR to uncover some unwholesome
practices by the private petroleum products’ depots following a
tip-off.”
It
listed conditions to be met by the depots before the sanction would be
lifted to include the payment of a fine of N2m each, an undertaking that
PMS would not be sold to bulk buyers, that all subsequent sale shall be
at N77.66 per litre as approved by the Federal Government, and that DPR
shall monitor the sale of the remaining and subsequent products.
The
agency said that it had also directed its offices to ensure that all
filling stations must sell petrol at the government-approved price of
N87 per litre across the country regardless of the source depot.
Despite
the sanction, one of our correspondents learnt on Monday that
independent marketers were still buying the product for N100 per litre
from the major depot owners.
The
Controller of Operations in charge of Cross River and Akwa Ibom states,
DPR, Mr. Asuquo Antai, said the depots would henceforth be monitored to
ensure strict compliance.
“I can
tell that the 21 petroleum depots that were earlier shut down have been
reopened and they were fined N2m each. We gave them condition across
board and we will monitor them to ensure compliance,” he added.
Speaking
on scarcity of the product, the DPR controller blamed marketers and
banks, saying major importers were reluctant to bring in the product,
while the banks were also not willing to finance imports.
Dailypost.
This confirms that many filing stations were selling fuel at 100 per litre
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