Prepare for fuel scarcity - Marketers tell Nigerians
From Komolafe Rasheed and Qudirat Hakeem-Apanpa - 28.05.2008
A fresh round of hardship looms in the country as fuel marketers yesterday warned Nigerians to prepare for another scarcity. The scarcity, Nigerian Tribune learnt is the fall-out of the recent pipeline fire incident at Ijegun, Lagos State but another source hinted the looming scarcity was the usual ploy of government to jack up the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol.
Another petroleum industry source, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that the problem might not be unconnected with the reality at the international market where the price of crude oil keeps skyrocketing on a daily basis and the fact that the local price was not encouraging importers to venture into the business as only NNPC was left to import.
Stakeholders in the oil industry who confirmed the impending scarcity revealed that the volume that was being loaded had been reduced drastically and there was no hope for improvement until next week.
Statistics of the supply situation of PMS attested to this fact. A source in one of the depots in the SouthWest told the Nigerian Tribune that in the past few weeks, what was being pumped into the depot had dropped drastically fuelling fears that government might be up to a move to jack up the pump price of petroleum products any moment from now
“As I am talking to you now, the fear of the unknown has gripped the marketers especially the independent marketers who depend on government depots for their business as PMS is being rationed to them,” the source said.
Confirming the situation to the Nigerian Tribune, the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Otunba Akanni Oyewole, said the volume now being allocated to the 874 marketers in Oyo and Osun State was just 525,000 litres instead of the usual 3 million or 2.5 million litres per day.
“In fact, Ibadan PPMC Depot received just 550,000 litres of PMS for the whole of this week showing a decline of almost 110,000 litres compared with 660,000 litres it received last week, shared among about 500 marketers,” another source told the Nigerian Tribune.
Otunba Oyewole advised Nigerians not to capitalise on that to store the product which could be dangerous to life and property.
Also speaking on the issue, the Secretary of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ unit of NUPENG, Mr. Ade Koledeso, stated that the Sagamu Depot could not load a single litre of the product on Tuesday due to the pipeline explosion in Lagos and that this would soon affect other parts of the country especially Ibadan and Ilorin which get supplies from Lagos via Sagamu.
He said although the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) had promised to rectify the problem before the end of next week, he was sure it might take longer than that, so Nigerians should be ready to face scarcity.
To prevent immediate scarcity, the Federal Government was said to have directed the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) Plc., to ensure a continuous loading of PMS from its Depot in Lagos till Thursday which is the anniversary day of the present government, fuelling fears that any moment after Thursday, the country might return to fuel scarcity.
The corporate affairs managers of the major marketers in the country declined comments on the issue.
