Many of the stations belonging to major marketers on Ikorodu road from mainland up to the Island were virtually empty yesterday, even as attendants could not offer any explanation on inquiry. Our correspondent who monitored the situation observed that Mobil and Oando filling Stations located in the heart of Maryland were not selling to motorists. However, Conoil near Oando which was selling had few vehicles on queue. It was not clear if the marketers were actually responding to the speculation but the national president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo told the Leadership on phone that a review is a well calculated suggestion. Okoronkwo said when government announced a cap on the product, he opposed the decision as a price regime of N145 per litre was unrealistic. “I objected to that policy because it will not attract investment and marketers will not import because the dynamics of the market will impact marketers margin,” he said. He further said that increasing exchange rate and its scarcity is a challenge to marketers . Recall that a group of former NNPC Group Managing Directors (GMDs) last week after a meeting in Abuja stated that N145 per litre fuel price did not reflect the price determining components of the commodity and the fluctuations of the forex. The former GMDs said the PMS price cap of N145 per litre was not congruent with the liberalization policy, especially with the foreign exchange rate and other price determining components such as crude cost, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) charges, among others, remaining uncapped. They, however, commended the NNPC for resolving the fuel supply crisis and urged the corporation to put measures in place that would ensure sustenance of seamless supply of petroleum products nationwide. The Federal government in May, increased the price of fuel from N86.60 to N145 in a move which was seen as a partial deregulation of the petroleum sector..]]>