The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has warned oil depot owners at Calabar tank farms to desist from selling petroleum products to bulk buyers and hiking prices of the products.
Operations Controller of DPR in Cross River, Mr Bassey Nkanga, gave the warning on Tuesday in Calabar at a meeting with depot owners and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
Nkanga said that any depot owner caught selling a litre of fuel above regulated price of N133.28 ex-depot price would be sanctioned.
He told the depot owners that the Federal Government had increased the supply of petrol to all depots across the country to ease scarcity of the product.
According to him, the purpose of this meeting is to inform depot owners of the directive which says that they should not sell above N133.28 ex-depot price to marketers.
“Depot owners should not sell the product to non-licensed filling stations or bulk buyers because anyone caught will pay a fine of N10 million.
“Any depot that is caught selling above the ex-depot price of N133.28 kobo per litre will also pay a fine of N10 million while those selling to an unlicensed filling station will pay a fine of N200 per litre for the entire product.
“Any filling station selling without a valid DPR licence will also pay a fine of N250,000,’’ Ekanga said.
He urged depot owners to respect the guidelines covering their operations, adding that the DPR in the state would not relent in its effort to ensure that the right thing was done.
Responding, IPMAN Chairman in the state, Mr Lawrence Agim, gave assurance that the association would work closely with the DPR to ensure that no product was diverted.
Agim urged the Federal Government to increase the allocation of products to Cross River, saying that the current supply was relatively low.
