Petrol scarcity worsens as independent marketers load at N780/L

THE prolonged petrol scarcity worsened in Lagos, Ogun and other states, yesterday, as independent marketers started lifting the product from private depots at N780 per litre, from N595 per litre, indicating an increase of 31 percent.

The marketers believe the hike in price reflects the current demand and supply of the product in the domestic market.

Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, who confirmed this in an interview with Vanguard, also expressed optimism that the bad situation could improve in the coming days.
Chief Ukadike noted that more trucks have left the depots in the past few days, adding that though independent marketers are still sourcing the product at a higher rate, more marketers can load their trucks.

According to him, “NNPC has started releasing products to independent marketers. The queues you are seeing now are ghost queues. They appear in the morning but disappear in the afternoon or evening. It will continue like that until supply stabilizes in the coming days and becomes sufficient enough.

“You must also remember that we are in the rainy season and it takes some time for trucks to come up north. In a few days, I believe the situation will ease.”

Petrol distribution challenges, which have gone on for about six weeks have led to long queues at filling stations across the country with several marketers jerking up their pump prices.

Checks around Abuja yesterday showed that while queues have eased slightly at the stations around the central area, the supply situation remains tense in other parts of the Federal Capital Territory.

Pump prices also remained high, ranging from N685/litre at outlets operated by major marketers to N950/litre at stations managed by independent marketers.

He said: “So we sell as we can buy and put up markups and margins to be able to make little profit. The transportation cost is a lot higher now. The product we normally bring in at N800,000 now costs N3.5 million because of the high cost of diesel and maintenance cost of the trucks.”

He disclosed that IPMAN is still waiting to meet with the management of the Dangote Refinery ahead of the expected release of petrol from the refinery, stressing that independent marketers are determined to remove middlemen from their dealings with the refinery.

“We are still anticipating that Dangote will invite us as one of the major stakeholders in the downstream of the oil and gas distribution chain. We will be one of their major off-takers. We are serious about the issue of third parties and that this is what IPMAN is trying to erase. Third parties’ involvement increases cost of the product and we don¡¯t want that to happen,” he added.

Vanguard