The Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have synergised to spur distribution and availability of Petroleum products.
The synergy became imperative in the light of the incessant fuel crises being witnessed in the country.
The two associations on Wednesday in Abuja at a joint news conference highlighted the new objectives under the synergy to serve Nigerians better.
Alhaji Lawan Dan-Zaki, President, ADITOP while briefing the press said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC) had a lot of products at the depots but the main problem was how to transport the products round the nation.
Dan-Zaki said the new collaboration would ensure that issues bordering distribution and availlability of products, scarcity and unnecessary strike were addressed properly in the oil and gas industry.
“Transportation in business is very vital because IPMAN owns the fuel stations while ADITOP owns the trucks, so the synergy will help in conveying all the products to their various stations.
“The queues you witness in the country will finally subside, we will give the NNPC all the support to ease distribution of petroleum products,” he said.
He expressed gratitude to the NNPC management for its partnership with the Ministry of Works on the rehabilitation of some major roads in the country to ease the transportation of petroleum products.
In his address, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, President, IPMAN said the collaboration was aimed at having hitch free flow and distribution of petroleum products because the oil and gas sector remained the mainstay of Nigerian economy.
According to him, the investment portfolio if IPMAN and ADITOP is running in trillions while the tankers and major stations being seen are combined efforts of the two associations.
He said overtime, the sector had not been able to have this kind of synergy or a clear cut organisation majorly involved in oil and gas like ADITOP which has huge investment in transportation, adding that its facilities must be utilised to enhance the sector.
He said the collaboration would bring a new horizon in the industry to project members welfare and eliminate incessant strike in the system.
Okoronkwo however lauded the assistance being rendered by the associations’s Consultant and Chairman of Benham Group, Dr Maurice Ibe, adding that the new management of the associations would foster a lot of values in the sector.
The Consultant, Ibe decried the worst hardship experienced in the petroleum sector in the past couple of weeks due to a gap within the distribution chain.
“The products are not getting to Nigerians because the owners of the tankers seem to have lost control of the vehicles and equipment to those who drive the trucks while the products are being diverted to neighbouring countries, thereby short-changing Nigerians.
“People literally hijacked the transportation of petroleum resources in the country,” he noted.
Ibe said it was on this note that it felt the necessity to bring the marketers who owned the fuel stations and distributors of the products to form a synergy to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians by ensuring that products reach every nook and cranny.
“We cant do these without having the principle stakeholders who control 80 per cent of downstream sector in Nigeria together, we want to ensure that their activities yield dividend,” he said.
He expressed displeasure over issues of bunkering, heavy taxation, bad road and banditry, adding that they needed to be addressed.
He added that the associations intended to aggressively engage with all agencies of government to make the roads motorable, safer and plyable for members.
ADITOP which has been in operation for years was officially inaugurated on March 24.
