By Fatima Saka
Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP), and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have synergise to improve distribution and availability of petroleum products.
However, the two associations on Wednesday in Abuja at a joint news conference highlighted the new objectives under the synergy to serve Nigerians better.
The President, ADITOP Alhaji Lawan Dan-Zaki, briefing newsmen, said that, 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 on distribution and availability 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 and Housing on the rehabilitation of some major roads in the country to ease the transportation of petroleum products.
However, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, the 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 the Nigerian economy.
According to him, the investment portfolio of 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.
According to him, this has huge investment in transportation as its facilities must be utilised to enhance the sector.
He also said the collaboration would bring a new horizon in the industry to project members welfare and eliminate incessant strike in the system.