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Fuel scarcity: Loading improves at depots

By on April 20, 2016

The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) on Monday continued to take a toll on motorists who had to stay in queues for hours at the few filling stations selling the product in Lagos and Ogun states.

Our correspondent, however, gathered that loading at depots in Apapa had improved following the arrival of two more vessels, which conveyed about 50 million metric tonnes of petrol.

In Lagos, many filling stations did not sell the product on Monday, while black marketers had a field day as they sold the product for as much as N300 per litre.

Some filling stations belonging to independent marketers in parts of Lagos and Ogun states also cashed in on the situation by raising the price of the product, as they sold it for between N140 and N180 per litre.

A source, who is an official of an independent marketing outfit, told our correspondent in a telephone interview, “The level of loading is getting high and the third-party ex-depot price is reducing. It is N130 per litre today (Monday), from N140 to N150 in recent days.

“Supply is getting better. There are new vessels. Alexia came in with about 24 million metric tonnes, and there is one other vessel, with about 25 million metric tonnes. Alexia came in on Saturday and it is still discharging.

“We worked on Saturday and Sunday, and were able to load over 200 trucks; and today (Monday), we are still trucking out. In about two weeks’ time, the queues should have vanished if the supply is sustained.”

He, however, said the marketers were still complaining that the dollars they were promised would be made available to them for product importation had not been given to them.

The National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Mike Osatuyi, said many of the members did not have petrol to sell.

“The supply problem is still there. We expect that when more vessels arrive, the situation will improve. The NNPC needs to do more to boost the supply of the product. With the major marketers now making efforts to import, the queues are expected to disappear in the coming weeks,” he explained.

The NNPC, had in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mr. Garba-Deen Mohammed, assured Nigerians that it was doing all within its powers to make sure that the queues disappeared.

The PUNCH had on Sunday reported that about 228, 073 million metric tonnes of petrol would be delivered at the Lagos ports in the next five days, according to information obtained from the Daily Shipping Position on the website of the Nigerian Ports Authority.

 

[Punch]