Mordi chukwunonso Esther 

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Nigerian Government to allow investors to run the three refineries.

The National Secretary of the association, Alhaji Danladi Pasali disclosed this in an interview with the NAN in Abuja on Wednesday.

His comment was in reaction to the report that the pump price of petrol might likely get to N190 per litre due to the recent increase in crude oil price.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva had asked Nigerians to get ready for increment in fuel price, stating that there was no provision for subsidy in the 2021 budget.

The Minister spoke on Tuesday in Abuja during the official launch of Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation Programme.

Pasali, commending government’s efforts, said that IPMAN controlled 80 per cent of the downstream sectors.

“IPMAN controls 80 per cent of the downstream sectors of the industry and with our investments running into trillion, the government should give us the three refineries.

“We can run it successfully in collaboration with our foreign investors,” he said.

According to Pasali, putting the investors in charge of the refineries, would ease the FG’s job and would improve the economy.

He said the increase in petrol price is not the option now, adding that it would further decrease patronage.

“The capacity of people buying the products are low now compared to before, for example, some people buy petrol of N1,500 for their cars but it was not like that in the past”, he said.