Queue Will Continue " Because NNPC Warns Depot Owners Against Cheating

The Independent Petroleum Marketers of Association of
Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday blamed fresh nationwide fuel
scarcity on unavailability of petrol for the marketers to
load from the petrol depots.
Its Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Dankigari, who spoke
to the nation  on telephone yesterday, added that
members of the association have 8,000 tickets pending
that it has not been able to load.

He said over the past few weeks, private depots owners
have been selling petrol at a price higher than the official
N77 per litre to marketers, lamenting that the depots
have all goen dry.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has warned depot owners
against selling petrol above the approved ex-depot price
of N77 per litre.

In a statement, its Group General Manager, Group Public
Afdairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe yesterday said the
warning came against the backdrop of repeated
complaints by marketers of sharp practices at the
depots.
The statement quoted the minister as warning that depot
owners found to be involved in selling products above
the approved ex-depot prices would be severely
sanctioned.

Dankigari blamed fuel scarcity on the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that is responsible for the
importation of 78 per cent of the product to the country.
He said: “The issue is that even where we are loading,
there is no product. We already have more than 8,000
tickets but we have not been able to load.
“Even the private depots that used to sell the products at
a higher rate no longer have the product to sell. So, that
is the reason why you have been seeing those queues.

The NNPC is only agency of government responsible for
bringing the products into the country.”
IPMAN had in the penultimate week raised the alarm
over the imminence of another fresh round of fuel
scarcity as private depot owners were selling petrol for
N97 per litre to marketers. Last week, the association
further cried out that the depot owners had increased the
price to N102 instead of N77 per litre.
This, according to Dakingari, posed a great barrier to the
marketers who avoided purchasing a product for N102
per litre and selling  N86.50 per litre.
Most petrol stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
were yesterday shut, a situtaion that affected vehicular
traffic in the city.

Alegbe has assured of sufficient supply of petrol as it
took delivery of four more cargoes of the product at the
weekend to keep the country wet. The state-run oil firm
said the deliveries which amount to about 180 million
litres is part of a new arrangement by the corporation to
have a cargo of PMS delivered daily as from March.

“The NNPC has stepped up collaboration with the Major
Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and other
downstream industry players to end the resurgence of
fuel queues in some major cities across the country
especially in Lagos and its environs,” Alegbe explained.
The NNPC stated that it has secured the commitment of
the leadership of MOMAN for effective collaboration in
this regard and assured that the queues will disappear in
few days time as supplies are ramped up across the
country.

“To achieve this, truck-out to filling stations in the Lagos
area has been increased from the regular 245 to 295
trucks per day (9.7 million) while truck-out to fuel
stations in Abuja from Suleja depot has been stepped up
to 210 trucks per day (6.9million litres) from the regular
supply of 160 trucks per day.
“Similar increment in supply volume has been activated
in the Port Harcourt, Calabar, Kano and Kaduna areas to
ensure seamless availability of petroleum products
across every nook and cranny of the country,” he said.

While appealing for understanding and support from
members of the public, the NNPC assured that it is doing
everything possible to end the prevailing challenges
experienced by motorists, commuters and the general
public in accessing petrol.
“Within the last 48 hours we have received six cargoes
of petrol (270 million litres) and beginning from 1st
March, 2016 we shall begin to receive one cargo of
petrol every day (45 million litres),’’ NNPC assured.
The NNPC also said Dr. Kachikwu has directed the full
activation of an Intra-Ministerial Joint Monitoring Task
Force made up of officials of Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory
Agency (PPPRA), and the Pipelines and Products

Marketing Company (PPMC) to ensure and enforce
compliance to laid down rules and regulations governing
the supply and distribution of petroleum products.