Contrary to the pledge by the Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, that lingering fuel
scarcity in the country would end on or before Thursday, April 7,
marketers and depot owners said on Sunday that consumers might have to
endure inadequate supply of the product till May.
The minister had initially given May as
the most likely date for the fuel scarcity to abate but was forced to
recant and say the situation should normalise latest by Thursday
following criticisms from different segments of the country.
An anonymous Marketer was interview by punch newspaper, He said only one of the three parking spaces at the Apapa Port
was discharging Premium Motor Spirit, adding that instead of the two
vessels that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had promised
would discharge by last weekend, only one actually came in.
According to the source, the vessel,
which carried 21 million metric tonnes of petrol, berthed at the Apapa
Port on Thursday and only commenced discharging its content on Saturday.
He explained, “The system is dislocated
and even if the marketers decide to import now, it will take a minimum
of 21 days for the fuel to come to Nigeria. The arrangement before now
was for the marketers to import 60 per cent of the country’s petrol
need, and the NNPC to bring in the balance.
“But the arrangement was changed midway
for the NNPC to import 78 per cent, while the marketers were left with
22 per cent. However, the corporation lacks the capacity and facilities
to do this well. It is doing less than 60 per of its allocation; so, I
don’t know what magic it will perform to end the fuel scarcity by
Thursday.”
Another marketer, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, explained that before now, his firm was getting on the
average four cargos of PMS per quarter, but that the number had been
reduced to one cargo of 30 million metric tonnes, which translated into
about 120 trucks to service over 3,000 retail outlets.
The marketers said their ability to import petroleum products would be determined by foreign exchange availability.
The Petroleum Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency had last week released the second quarter petrol
import allocations, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
given 41.7 per cent and private marketers 58.3 per cent of the national
consumption.
ommenting on the increased allocation to
the marketers for the second quarter, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo,
described it as a welcome development.
“I think it will create the enabling
environment for the marketers to contribute their quota to the supply.
But the most important thing is that the government should make forex
available to them as they promised so that we can bring this scarcity to
an end.”
