By Iffy
Nigerians are gradually gearing up for another bout of what seems to be a major fuel shortage this yuletide season as frequent appearance of queues of desperate motorists at filling stations in search of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol has continued to linger with no obvious remedy in sight.
The oil marketers on Friday, stated that the ill fated situation may persist into the new year, thereby causing untold hardship and suffering for the people.
It was also gathered that oil marketers were now free to sell petrol at any rate as the Federal Government was no more restraining them from dispensing the commodity at a regulated price.
Fuel queues have continued to appear and disappear since January this year despite the hike in the cost of the commodity by oil marketers without any approval from the Federal Government or sanctions imposed on them.
Rather than speak on the matter, the Federal Government, through its Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, chose to remain mute.
However, NMDPRA in its report on product sufficiency on Thursday, however, claimed that there was 33.17-day sufficiency of PMS in the country as of November 24, 2022. It also stated that about 2.1 billion litres of petrol was in stock despite the widespread queues nationwide.
Oil marketers countered the government as they argued that there had been concerns around logistics and the supply of products by the national oil company and sole importer.
A major marketer, who pleaded anonymity due to lack of authorisation, stated;
“Recently, there have been a lot of charges that marketers pay. There are some charges that the NNPC adds to the pump price, but recently we were told to be prepared to bear freight charges and others,”
“Also, pipeline charges that used to be 50 kobo before, are now N1 per litre, forcing depot owners to increase ex-depot rates as against the one proposed by the NNPC”
The National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, said the scarcity of foreign exchange was also a setback to petroleum products supply.
“As a PRO of IPMAN in Nigeria, I can read the policies of the government towards the distribution of products in the downstream oil sector. You look at the exchange rate of the dollar to the naira, some foreign interruptions and the price of diesel.
“All these are factors that definitely affect petroleum products’ prices since we are not producing refined products in Nigeria. We cannot sustain the importation of petrol.
“The major solution now is to speed up the repairs of our refineries. However, we are meeting and looking for quick interventions.”
The Deputy National President, IPMAN, Zarma Mustapha, stated that the queues would likely continue till December, but noted that efforts were on to address the hitches.
