As the fuel scarcity continues to bite hard in Nigeria, especially in urban centres like Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, petroleum marketers revealed that there is insufficiency in the importation of the product by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, as many of its deport has no product. The Marketers also attributed the scarcity to price hikes as the naira in the parallel market has lost ground against the dollar pushing the price of the product upwards.
According to Chief Ukadike Chinedu, the Public Relation officer of the independent Marketers Association, “There is a serious lag in product sufficiency from NNPC because of the unavailability of mother vessels. These are vessels that ship the product from abroad. That is why we have a gap.”
Chinedu added, “It is not just about the flood, because the scarcity is hitting many other parts of the country. There was serious scarcity in Port Harcourt and you can see what is happening in Lagos now. In Abuja, it has been there since.”
According to other sources, petroleum deport in the western part of the country have a serious scarcity of the product as all private deport including that of the NNPCL have no product.
In a similar report, Port Harcourt also has no available product except that there is speculation Masters Energy Deport might likely get the product today as their vessel may dock today.
However, Chinedu added that another challenge faced by marketers is that marketers have to buy the product at the rate of N179-N180/litre for the product and which makes it not visible to sell at the government-approved price of N175/litre.
He explained, “It is high time the Federal Government revived the refineries. Our dependence on imports is really devaluing our naira and bringing suffering to the masses. One dollar is now N760 at the parallel market.”
When asked whether the scarcity was also because oil marketers were again moving to hike PMS Prices, Ukadike replied in the affirmative, saying, “It is true because both the maritime charges and that of vessels have gone up. The cost of diesel has also spiked. So how will the vessel owner cope?
He lamented that “There is so much stress on the naira. Some of the depot charges are paid in dollars, and these are transactions that are done here in Nigeria.”
He explained that “They now give some private tank farm owners allocation to load from their mother depot/vessels with daughter vessels. So, the private tank farm owner is saddled with the responsibility of hiring a daughter vessel,”
He added this has entirely pushed the price of the product as the cost of hiring a vessel has doubled and there is no way private deport can continue to sell at the old price.
He disclosed that “Some NNPC filling stations are even selling at N180/litre, which is why you see independent marketers selling at N190 – N195/litre.”
Meanwhile, the NNPC spokesperson was not available to respond to the claim as a call put to his was not responded to.
