The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has called on the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to check alleged unwholesome activities of depot owners.

The Chief Lawson Obasi-led IPMAN made the call while reacting to the DPR threat to sanction filling stations that were selling fuel above official pump price of N87.

Obasi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that owners of filling stations were not the sole cause of selling fuel above pump price but some depot or tank farm owners.

He said that DPR ought to sanction some depot owners for selling fuel to marketers above ex-depot price of N77.66k.

He said IPMAN members were not interested in selling fuel at high prices but were constrained by the activities of depot owners who allegedly sold the product to them at indiscriminate prices.

"We are not interested in selling above pump price or high price but we have some constraints.

"We rely on depot owners who sell to us at their discretion; they sell to us at their own price and we have to sell at what we buy.

"If we get the product directly from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or its designated depots, we won’t have problems because they will sell at regulated price and we will in turn sell at the controlled price.

He said the product was being purchased at high cost from other private tank farms usually owned by Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA).

According to him, DAPPMA controls the price as IPMAN has only one depot which is the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) and cannot serve its members across the nation.

"We have over 60 per cent retail outlets in the nation; NIPCO cannot serve all of them so we need to rely on DAPPMA and other tank farm owners who sell to us at their discretion,” he said.

"The DPR needs to intensify or to improve in the area of monitoring depot owners so that the product can get to marketers at the regulated price.

"They don’t need to centre their monitoring on the filling stations only; that is not going to help us and the nation.”

NAN reports that Mr George Osahon, Director of DPR, at a meeting with the oil marketers in Abuja on June 5, threatened to sanction filling stations that sold fuel above pump price.

Osahon said the agency warned the marketers to resolve the issue of price with the depot owners before lifting fuel.

(NAN)