Fuel Scarcity: Petroleum Marketers Are Not Profiteering By Increasing Fuel Prices, Businesses Need To Survive, Says Gillis-Harry

The National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETRON), Dr. Billy Gillis-Harry, has said that petroleum retail outlet owners are not using Nigeria’s ongoing bout with fuel scarcity to make profit off of Nigerians by increasing their fuel prices.

The PETRON President said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday where he discussed the current scarcity of fuel in Nigeria- which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) linked to logistics issues- that has caused long queues and high prices from black market sellers across the country, as he said that petroleum retail outlet owners have to raise prices in times of fuel scarcity so that marketers will not go out of business.

However, Gillis-Harry emphasised that Petroleum marketers were not taking advantage of fuel scarcity to indiscriminately increase their prices as he said, “We have statistics and scientific analysis of what is being done by our members, and I can tell you, yes, I may not speak for 100% of my members, but most of my members keep to the rules. So, we do not profiteer, but we try to stay above the buying price so that we can be in business. If we sell at the price that everybody is expecting while we bought the product more, then we would be out of business and then it becomes much more difficult and much more dangerous because the station cannot be restocked even when NNPC supply challenges are sorted out, and the refineries that are refining locally start.”

He further explained the need for the slight increase in prices in times of fuel scarcity by saying, “Prior to this situation, a couple of weeks ago, petroleum products in many of our member stations across the country never sold beyond what was approved by NNPC’s selling price. Now today, most retail outlets owners in order to serve Nigerians are doing everything possible to make sure that they have even 5,000 litres in their filling stations to be in business, because don’t forget, whether there is product or not, we must meet overheads, and these overheads are consistent, they don’t change, they don’t fluctuate.

“When there is no product, we don’t send out staff packing, we keep them working. So, if somebody managed to get 10,000 litres or 5000 litres to a station to keep the place wet and have the place working, the circumstances of the price will be different, because he would have done quite a lot of different things to get that product to that station. And when that happens, what we as a responsible organisation request is that we should be informed as to where the product was got, how it was caught.”

Gillis-Harry, however, when asked what the logistic challenges the NNPC are facing are, said, “NNPC made that statement, and I said earlier that I do not work for NNPC, and I am not in any way competent to analyse NNPC’s internal management issues. Now, if the announcement was that there is a logistics problem, then, I would expect that the NNPC be clear enough to let us know what those challenges are. But from retail outlet owners’ perspectives, we have our own tankers, we hire them from the owners of the tankers, we own some of them, and then some of our members have tankers up to 200, 150, and they are ready to work.

“So, we cannot say we have logistics problems, the only thing is the process of how to get the product and get them from one location to the other will become the challenge. Roads, infrastructure, the cost of transportation, that is the diesel fuel that is used, and the tendencies of our drivers to undercut us by using fake or illegal fuel to do what they are doing, these will be the challenges we have. But as of today, for us in PETRON, our request will be we should have access to as much product as possible, and we will deliver them to where we want to do.”

The Petron President then said, “I believe that we need to have facts, facts that should be able to help us keep our country more stable, we shouldn’t work on speculative assumptions from anyone. The NNPC has a clear mandate to do their business, we as petroleum retail outlet owners we are partnering with them, first to expand the distribution scope to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, and that’s exactly what PETRON, as a responsible and patriotic organisation, is doing.

“There will be no need to second guess NNPC, NNPC will only give us information that they want to give to us because none of us is working internally, and I think speculating and assuming what should be and what shouldn’t be will not help this country. The thing that we should say is if NNPC says that there is petroleum products, then they should walk the talk. As retail outlet owners we are ready to receive the product, we are ready to pay for it at the price NNPC is selling, and we are ready to take it to our retail outlets and distribute to Nigerians at the price that is affordable.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi

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