Oil marketers have raised concerns over the closure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) portal, which they rely on to apply for petrol purchases. According to the marketers, the shutdown has resulted in delays in their ability to procure fuel, with over 90 million litres of petrol valued at approximately N79bn still pending.
The NNPC’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, confirmed the closure of the portal, explaining that it was necessary due to a significant backlog in processing orders. He stated, “The portal was closed to prevent the NNPC from holding marketers’ funds for an extended period.” He added that the portal would be reopened once the backlog had been sufficiently reduced.
Soneye assured that the company is working to address the situation and expedite the clearance of outstanding orders. “We are working on it, and the portal will be reopened once the backlog is reduced,” he said.
Independent marketers, who confirmed the issue, said that as of the weekend, NNPC had been taking steps to clear the outstanding orders. However, they revealed that the backlog included over 2,000 tickets for petrol purchases, representing more than 90 million litres of fuel.
Chinedu Ukadike, the National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), estimated that a truckload of 45,000 litres of petrol is currently valued at about N39.5m, bringing the total value of the pending tickets to around N79bn.
He added, “We have more than 2,000 tickets for 45,000 litres each. This gives you an estimate of how many millions of litres are still pending. Our marketers are still waiting for the portal to reopen so we can continue loading petrol from the NNPC.”
Independent marketers have expressed frustration over the prolonged delays in petrol supply. In some cases, they said they had paid for fuel months ago but were yet to receive their supplies. Hammed Fashola, the National Vice President of IPMAN, previously accused the NNPC of holding marketers’ funds for extended periods without delivering the products, a claim denied by Soneye.
Marketers have also indicated a growing interest in purchasing petrol directly from the Dangote Refinery to ensure better price parity and smoother transactions.
