Fuel scarcity: Marketers blame low supply, NNPCL disagrees

 

Oil marketers stated on Thursday that the reason behind the long queues at petrol filling stations in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger States is the insufficient supply of Premium Motor Spirit by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited.

The NNPCL, which is the sole importer of the product, refuted the oil marketers’ claim, attributing the queues in the affected areas, particularly Abuja, to “price war”.

The queues for petrol at filling stations in Abuja and its neighbouring states in particular, as well as some South-East and South-South states, have persisted in the past few weeks.

“The queues have continued because there is an insufficient supply of products. If we have enough products, it will bring down these acts of profiteering among marketers,” the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, told our correspondent.

He added, “It is when the products become very difficult to access that is when you start to see cases of profiteering. But if everywhere is littered with products, you won’t experience what we are seeing now.

“In Port Harcourt, for instance, our tickets have been tied down. For the past three weeks, we have not been able to load products, leading to queues at the few stations that have products. But the government, which is actually represented in this business by NNPCL, keeps saying that it is expecting stock.”

Ukadike noted that though NNPCL had promised to discharge some vessels of PMS at Warri, Lagos and CThis, according to the IPMAN official, was among the reasons private depot owners had raised the cost of their products, leading to the hike in the pump prices of petrol at retail outlets.

“We heard that there is a vessel that is coming to Calabar to discharge, so Port Harcourt and other states in the region are still expecting it. Also, we heard that another vessel is going to discharge in Lagos. Warri is also expecting a vessel.

“So, with the few depots that have petroleum products now, you will know that there will be serious profiteering and scrambling for PMS. It is, therefore, important for NNPCL vessels to come in with products, particularly as we approach the Yuletide.

“But they (NNPCL) have assured us that there will be enough products during the Christmas period,” Ukadike stated, but stressed that the fuel i

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