- Saturday, May 4, 2024
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A looming Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol scarcity may
hit the country soon if supply situation of the product by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) does not improve in the next two
days.
Across the Lagos, Ogun and Abuja metropolis yesterday, most
filling stations, including NNPCL retail outlets, were shut to motorists. The
same situation applied to independent and major marketers owned filling
stations across these cities. The few that opened to the public had long queues
of vehicles at their pumps; most of the stations dispensing petrol did so using
only one pump, thereby aggravating the queues. All NNPCL stations in Ikeja axis
including the three on Ogunnusi road between Omole roundabout and Ojodu-Berger
and BOVAS were shut; same is applicable to the NNPCL stations along Alausa secretariat
road. In Akute, Ogun State, of the two NNPCL stations, only one was opened to
motorists although it was yet to dispense petrol to the long queue as at 3pm
yesterday.
Findings by The Nation showed that the build up to the
appearance of the queues yesterday has been on in the last one week. According
to some NNPCL station managers who spoke in confidence to this reporter, the
shortage of petrol supply to their respective stations is a direct result of
the supply pressure on NNPCL. They explained that because the NNPCL offers the most friendly ex depot price of
the product, most, if not all marketers, now depend of the firm for petrol
supply.
“NNPCL sells petrol at about N550 per litre ex depot price
compared to other private depots that sell at N620 per litre. So it makes more
economic and business sense for other dealers to buy from NNPCL instead of from
private depots because of the price differential. Unfortunately, this has now put NNPCL under
pressure which has made it unable to meet up. For two weeks now, the firm has
not been able to meet supply demands of marketers, including those of us under
its franchise. My station has been waiting for one week now and we are yet to
load at the NNPCL depot even though we are under its franchise,” the NNPCL
station manager explained, adding that “I am sure things will ease up soon.”
Confirming the situation, the National President, Independent
Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maiganda, in a
telephone chat with this reporter, explained loading disruption at the NNPCL
depots across the country has been a major challenge in the past two weeks for
his members.
Maigandi, worried about the effect of the situation, warned
that the nation may face scarcity problems if the situation does not improve
anytime soon. He appealed for urgent resolution of the supply glitch because
his members do not want such to happen.
“The queue situation we are witnessing now is pertaining to
loading issues. Most of our (IPMAN) trucks are there in Lagos and we are not
getting opportunity to load. So the problem has to do with supply and loading.
We are yet to hear anything from the NNPCL on this even as IPMAN, we are not
getting our allocation from NNPCL in spite of our pact with them. We cannot go
to other private depots because their prices are too high and it doesn’t
benefit us to buy from them because how much are we going to sell that to the
public.
“We are expecting explanations from NNPCL on why we cannot
load. Although they are not talking to us at the moment, but the situation
boils down to supply issues. Our fear is that we don’t want scarcity of petrol,
it does no one any good, that is why we as IPMAN are working frantically to get
over this; but if the supply does not improve from NNPCL, then there is nothing
we can do meaning there will be scarcity, except Nigerians are willing to buy
at a higher cost if we resort to get supply from the other depots whose cost is
higher (N620 per litre) than that of NNPCL,” Maigandi said.
When contacted on the development, the General Manager,
Corporate Communications, NNPCL, Femi Soneye, told The Nation that there is no
supply glitch or issues arising from his firm as the Company has more than enough
product to serve the market.
“We don’t have any supply issue; we have products available.
The tightness you are seeing is that there are price differentials and this is
not peculiar to us alone; it happens all over the world. So folks go to
wherever they can get it cheaper. So we have products available and there are no
issues at all,” he explained.
Soneye however requested for the list of filling stations
shut from this reporter, promising to revert with information on the situation.
However, as at press time he was yet to revert as promised.
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