Oil marketers have raised concerns that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has shut down its purchasing portal, preventing them from placing orders for petrol.
They revealed that more than 90 million litres of petrol, valued at approximately N79bn, remain undelivered by the state-owned company.
This comes after the NNPC confirmed the closure of its portal to address a significant backlog. According to NNPC spokesperson Olufemi Soneye, the move was necessary to avoid holding marketers’ funds for an extended period.
“We have a significant backlog to address. The closure is intended to prevent us from holding marketers’ capital for too long,” Soneye explained, assuring that the portal would be reopened once the backlog had been reduced.
Marketers acknowledged that the NNPC has been working to clear the backlog, but the portal remains closed. Independent marketers disclosed that over 2,000 tickets for 45,000-litre petrol loads are still pending.
Chinedu Ukadike, National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), expressed frustration over the portal’s continued closure. He estimated that the pending 2,000 tickets represent millions of litres of petrol, worth roughly N79bn.
Similarly, the Petroleum Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) confirmed that its members are also unable to access the NNPC portal. PETROAN President Billy Gillis-Harry briefly acknowledged the situation, saying, “The portal shutdown affects us too, we are all buying from NNPC.”
Meanwhile, marketers have turned to private depot owners for petrol, paying a premium price, which has driven up fuel costs at independent stations compared to NNPC outlets.
Marketers also voiced complaints about delayed supplies. Some claimed they waited up to three months after payment before receiving their petrol orders, a situation that has previously been denied by the NNPC. IPMAN’s National Vice President, Hammed Fashola, called for a review of the distribution system to give IPMAN members priority, emphasizing that marketers are often left without product despite paying upfront.
To address these challenges, marketers are now seeking direct access to petrol from Dangote, hoping this will help stabilize prices across their stations.
 has shut down its purchasing portal){kind=link}