INDEPENDENT petroleum marketers have said Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, will continue to sell above N100 per litre in retail outlets due to the failure of the Department of Petroleum Resources to effectively monitor the activities at the major depots.

The fuel marketers said the product is still being sold for N100 per litre to them, despite DPR’s last week sanction of 23 major petroleum depots for selling PMS above the official price. The Group Chairman of Prosperous Oil and Gas, Mr. Isinkaye Abiodun, flayed depot owners for constantly inflating the price of the product.

He said if the DPR were truthful with its monitoring, the fraudulent practice would not have been going on successfully.Abiodun said, “Corruption in the petroleum industry cannot be eradicated immediately. Part of that corruption is responsible for why we cannot sell at independent retail outlets at the approved N87 per litre.

“The major importers of the product who are the same people collecting the subsidies are not being sincere. Apart from inflating the quantity of products they bring in, they also sell above the ex-depot price of N77.66 per litre to us.“We buy at N100 per litre from them. It is for that reason that we sell above N100 per litre at retail outlets.

“The depot owners are constantly inflating the price and if the DPR is actually monitoring them very well as they claimed to be doing, we won’t be buying at that amount.”Mr. Michael Udofia, a former IPMAN chairman, also accused the major marketers of selling the product to them at N100 per litre.

He added that an average retailer would need to sell for between N110 and N120 in order to break even.“The major marketers have been selling the product to us for N100 per litre. So, we are forced to sell the product for between N11o and N120 for us to break even,” he said.