*Blames Shortages On Three-Day Distribution Disruption
*Scarcity Worsens As Stations Hike Pump Price
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has assured Nigerians that the ongoing fuel scarcity and queues would be cleared out Wednesday, May 1.
This is even as the scarcity worsened, with many marketers running out of stock and some of those still dispensing increase the pump price of petrol unofficially.
The Chief Communications Officer of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, April 30, in Lagos, that the company currently has an availability of product exceeding 1.5 billion litres, which can last for at least 30 days and what it earlier described as “tightness in fuel supply” had been sorted out.
“Unfortunately, we experienced a three-day disruption in distribution due to logistical issues, which has since been resolved.
“However, as you know, overcoming such disruptions typically requires double the amount of time to return to normal operations.
“Some folks are taking advantage of this situation to maximise profits. Thankfully, product scarcity has been minimal lately, but these folks might be exploiting the situation for unwarranted gain
“The lines will be cleared out between today (April 30) and tomorrow (May 1),” Soneye assured.
Similarly, National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (lPMAN), Hammed Fashola, was optimistic that the queues in Lagos and Ogun states would ease off this week, based on NNPCL’s assurance.
He, however, said the queues in Abuja might last a little longer due to the distance to Lagos, noting: “The information available to us from the NNPCL was that there was a logistics problem, and when that happens, it will disrupt the supply chain.
“That might be a delay in the movement of ships from the mother vessel to the daughter vessel before it gets to the depot tanks.
“Before we can correct that, surely it will take some days. I think by Tuesday or Wednesday, there will be more products available for lifting by marketers.
“It might take time before it can ease off in Abuja, considering the distance to Lagos and the bad roads. But Lagos might be calm this new week.”
Across the affected states, the scarcity is negatively impacting motorists and commuters, as only a few commercial vehicles have petrol, leading to a hike in fares.
In Lagos metropolis, only a few filling stations were selling, with long queues in most parts, such as Abule-Egba and environs; Abbatoir Road in Agege; Akowonjo Road, Bariga, Fola-Agoro and the popular Lasu-Igando Road.
Filling stations in Abuja and environs have unofficially increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), known as petrol, as scarcity of the product bites harder.
On Tuesday, fuel stations that had products were selling between N850 and N1,000 per litre, while the black marketers sold at N1,300 and N1,400 per litre.
But NNPCL stations maintained the price of N617.
Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) has attributed the current scarcity to no petrol product available for supply in the country.
The IPMAN’s Public Relations Officer, Chinedu Ukadike, in a statement, said there was a breach in the international supply chain; hence fuel was not available even for the sole supplier, the NNPCL, due to ongoing turnaround maintenance (TAM) of refineries in Europe.
Ukadike explained that once there was a breach in the international supply chain, it was bound to impact on import-dependent domestic supply.
“The situation is that there is no product. Once there is a lack of supply or inadequate supply, you will see scarcity and queues will emerge at filling stations.
“On the part of NNPCL, which is the sole supplier of petroleum products in Nigeria, they have attributed the challenge to logistics and vessel problems.
“I also have it on good authority that most of the refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance, so sourcing petroleum products has become a bit difficult.
“NNPCL has assured us that there will be improvement in the supply chain, because their vessels were arriving. Once that is done, normalcy will return, because once the 30-day supply sufficiency is disrupted, it takes two to three months to restore it.
“We expect that by next week or so, NNPCL should be able to restore supply and with another week, normalcy should return,” he said.
Ukadike added: “NNPC has said the marketers who have not been able to renew their licences will not be allowed to remain on their portal, which has been shut for some time now. Because of this, we have not been able to request new products.
“At this nascent period of deregulation, you will discover that this leads to scarcity, even when the product arrives.
“As it is now, even by their data, out of 15,000 marketers that are on the portal with licences, only 1,050 renewed their licences.
“The requirement for renewal by NMDPRA is so much. Marketers are facing a hostile environment. NNPCL placed a deadline of April 15, 2024, for marketers to renew their licences.
“We are, therefore, appealing to NNPCL to extend this deadline and to NMDPRA to hasten the release of licences of marketers who have completed their processes, and also reduce bottlenecks around licence renewals.”
