The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has blamed the Nigerian Midstream and Upstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for low quality petrol being sold at filling stations across Nigeria.

IPMAN National Vice President John Okwocha, who stated this while speaking at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) in Abuja, added that lack of local refining capacity was partially responsible for the situation. 

According to him, some of the products evaporate easily unlike the product that the country used to refine.

He urged the federal government to ensure the promise of December for the refineries to begin operation is met as according to him, only local refining can put a stop to the importation of low quality fuel.

“The prayer of this house is that government must look inward to ensure our refineries are put to use to create room for reduction of these high petroleum products importation as we are saying today.

“A lot of people don’t use their vehicles again. If you put N20,000 or N30,000 fuel in your car, before two days the thing is gone. I don’t know whether it is evaporating. “Sometimes, I ask myself what has happened to the N30,000 fuel that I bought yesterday. The thing (fuel gauge) has started showing red.

“I don’t know if the type of product we have is no more like the original product that we used to get.

“This is because the competition has made it convenient for importers to get very light and all kinds of product to the country. And we accommodate it because we don’t have alternative.

“But if we produce it in this country, we will have choice. If we produce in this country, we will select. If we produce in this country, it will make it even more competitive and cheaper.

“That is the prayer of this house: the government must look inward and make life easy for people by making sure refineries are put in place to function.”