6th May, 2012
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has suspended NIMEX Petroleum Ltd, an oil trading company from Switzerland, from supplying petrol to Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Reginald Stanley said that the Swiss firm refused to submit important documents on its shuttle vessels, which loaded from the mother vessel as well as its documentation on the cumulative load-outs.
He said that NIMEX was therefore, “suspended from supplying cargoes to Nigerian marketers under the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) scheme, pending the provision of the necessary documents’’ by NIMEX.
The PPPRA chief said that independent cargo inspectors, who superintended the receipt of the products from NIMEX, would also be sanctioned, if found to be culpable.
Stanley said: “all marketers are hereby warned that with effect from May 3, 2012, all purchases of premium motor spirit from Messrs NIMEX Petroleum shall not be processed for PSF claims. ”
The PPPRA has also directed Swift Oil and Gas Ltd, Lagos to provide required documentation on “originals of discharged documents’’, known in the industry as shore-tank certificates.
Stanley said that Swift Oil would be sanctioned if it failed to provide the documents.
He pointed out that the sanction would send “a powerful signal to all operators that a new regime of transparency and due process in the industry is here to stay’’, the News Agency of Nigeria reported.