Marketers have blamed dry depots, bad roads and high cost of diesel for the on-going petrol scarcity across major cities in the country.
Checks around Abuja, yesterday, showed that most major marketers opened for business have hiked their pump price from N615 to N625 per litre, while most independent stations were, however, shut, or ran out of stock.
At AY Shafa and AA Rano stations, motorists complained bitterly at the overnight hike in the pump price without any notice to consumers.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Vanguard, the Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, said most coastal depots were empty because they had not received any cargo from NNPC Retails.
Ukadike noted that with NNPC Retails as the sole importer of petrol into the country, marketers across the country were relying on the government-owned oil company for supplies.
“The issue we have is that most of the private depots have gone out of stock because they augment supply from NNPCL. Since NNPC is the sole importer, these private depots that independents buy products from also depend on the NNPC for their supplies. This arrangement is also encouraging profiteering.
“We have been finding it very difficult to pick products from NNPC in the past five days and that is why you are seeing the skeletal scarcity. It is not major yet. The important point here is that despite the deregulation, NNPC is still the sole importer of PMS and no other depot is importing.
“Some of the portals owned by NNPC have shutdown and are no longer issuing authority to lift to marketers in some of their portals. This significantly shows that there is a gap in the chain of supply. But I was reassured by the MD of NNPC that they are expecting products and they will feed us very soon.
“I want to state that NNPC prices have not changed and they are still selling at N577.6/litre ex-depot price,” he added
Petroleum products marketers have warned that retail outlets were shutting down operations due to increasing cost of running the business.
Also speaking, the President of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, NOGASA, Mr. Benneth Korie, warned that the downstream in the country was under serious pressure as stations were shutting down due harsh operational conditions.
Korie pointed out that “depot owners are so terribly affected by the increasing cost of the crude and exchange rate to the extent that many depots are practically deserted as their owners are unable to secure bank loans to fund their business due to high interest rates.
“Banks are not willing to guarantee funds release to stakeholders as a result of the difficulty, instability and galloping rates of foreign exchange and high cost of the dollar. Many depots are presently dried up or out of stock, and this is no gainsaying as it is evidently verifiable.
“Worst hit are filling stations whose owners find it extremely difficult to secure funds to procure products for their retail outlets and both the independent and major marketers are so terribly affected that as at today, filling stations are shutting down in great numbers on a daily basis and dealers are going out of business with many more on the verge of bankruptcy because of their inability to secure funds to facilitate orders for their stations.”
He blamed bad roads across the country for delays in getting trucks to stations, adding marketers and truck owners were having a hard time managing costs in the industry.
Korie, who was yesterday re-elected as NOGASA President for another four years, said the government needed to urgently step in to support the marketers during this difficult time.
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