Marketers rev up fuel importation operations to end scarcity

The nation has in the past one month witnessed severe fuel scarcity that crippled operations in all sectors of its economy. UDEME AKPAN re­ports that the situation may improve this week as some operators have secured funds to import the prod­uct.

There are strong indications that the nation’s prolonged fuel scarcity may ease as some oil marketing companies have started to import fuel.

For instance, NIPCO Plc indicated that it had commenced the importa­tion of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS otherwise known as petrol, in support of the Federal Government moves to eliminate scarcity.

It dislcosed that the first consign­ment of imported product arrived via MT CHAMPION, which has already discharged 37 million litres in NIP­CO’s terminal in Lagos even in the face of the challenges in the down­stream sub-sector.

The oil company stated that its ac­tion was also to heed the call by the minister of state for petroleum re­sources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachik­wu, that oil marketers should bring in products to augment supplies from the Nigeria National Petroleum Cor­poration, NNPC.

Investigations showed that the consignments are meant to meet the growing demands of the company registered marketers. It was gathered that Nipco had mapped out measures to ensure that all the products get to designated stations at regulated pric­es.

The company indicated that it will not tolerate any unwholesome prac­tices by any marketer that would undermine government efforts at en­suring that petrol get to stations at regulated rates even as measures are at advanced stage with key stakehold­ers like PEF, DPR and other relevant agencies to track all loadings at the depots to designated stations. The compa­ny maintained that it would monitor the distribution of the products.

The company had in a notice pasted at it terminal cau­tioned all marketers registered to load petroleum products in the terminal to play according to set regulations. It maintained that a surveillance team has been put in place to sanction mar­keters found to be engaged in any de­spicable acts.

Investigations showed that hun­dreds of marketers with outlets across the nooks and crannies’ of the country are positioning themselves to pick the products having been on the waiting list for several months, owing to paucity of products. This, it was learnt would go a long way in comple­menting the efforts of the Federal Government through NNPC to bring about adequate domestic supplies.

The Corporation had in the past few weeks made frantic efforts to tackle the scarcity without much success because of the activities of illegal operators. The Executive Di­rector, Commercial of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, Mr. Justine Ezeala, had remarked that a projected volume of 1.4 billion litres of petrol are available for dis­tribution to fuel stations across the country all through the month of No­vember. Ezeala had informed that as part of the extra measure in place to tackle the artificially induced queues, PPMC has increased the volume of petrol being trucked out to fuel sta­tions across major cities in the coun­try, adding that most of the 37 NNPC Retail Mega Stations across the coun­try have been directed to commence 24-hour service.

“NNPC Retail has 513 retail outlets all over the country and the strategy is that every one of these stations is designed to have products at all times. In addition we have decided that most of the mega stations will adopt 24 hours operation model and where for security reasons that cannot be met, we are going to have extended hours of operation in such location start­ing from 5am and end till about 10.pm daily,” he had said.

The head of NNPC Retail, Mr. Ola­dipo Fagbola had also indicated that in addition to the commencement of the 24-hour service, the company had opened up some hotlines to enable members of the public provide useful feedback and intelligence on the op­erations of Mega and affiliate filling stations across the country. He had urged members of the public to pro­vide useful information to assist the Corporation achieve its mandate and

responsibility to the fuel consumers.

However, the situation started to record improvement only when the NNPC made public the engagement of the Department of State Services, DSS and Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in a re­newed effort to arrest hoarding and diversion of petroleum products by some unscrupulous marketers. The engagement of the security agencies is also meant to assist in the monitor­ing of nationwide fuel truck-out to re­tail outlets.

The NNPC assured that it was do­ing everything possible to normalise the fuel supply and distribution situ­ation. The Group Executive Director Commercial and Investment of the Corporation, Dr. Babatunde Adeniran had said any marketer found wanting in the sale of petroleum products in­cluding the NNPC Retail outlet deal­ers, would be sanctioned appropri­ately.

Adeniran maintained that there would be no sacred cows as the Cor­poration was working round the clock by supplying sufficient petroleum products to marketers to ensure that Nigerians enjoyed a yuletide season without the pain of fuel queues.

“We must all make sure that petro­leum products get across to Nigerians at the regulated price especially as the yuletide season approaches. We have enough products and we want to plead with the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) not to be involved in the diversion of petroleum prod­ucts in order to avoid causing untold hardship to motorists,” Adeniran en­joined.

The Managing Director of the Pipe­lines and Products Marketing Com­pany, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue had said the DSS and EFCC have been mo­bilised to bring to book any marketer involved in sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government in making petroleum products available to mo­torists across the country.

“We have invited the EFCC and DSS to join us in this campaign of monitoring the movement of petro­leum products and they have our mandate to sanction any errant mar­keter. Enough is enough,” Mrs. Nnam­di-Ogbue cautioned.

Shortly after this, many stations that claimed they had no fuel before started to sell. The development gives impression that the scarcity was also political in nature. Observers main­tained that oil marketers whose out­standing has risen to over N300 bil­lion might have used the scarcity to make case for immediate settlement of their outstanding claims.

Also, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR has sealed about 50 fuel stations across the state for vari­ous offences. The sealing and subse­quent sanction followed the arbitrary increase in the pump price of petro­leum products by independent mar­keters in the state.

The stations were also accused of hoarding premium motor spirit oth­erwise called petrol thus creating ar­tificial scarcity while also absconding from station when people queue up to buy fuel and delaying sales of fuel product till late in the night to make illegal gains. The officials of DPR in conjunction with men of the Nigeri­an Security and Civil Defence Corps visited the interior parts of the state where sharp practices are most ram­pant.

A few days ago, DPR had boasted that: “The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) wishes to inform the General Public that it has set up a 24 hours surveillance monitoring team of petrol stations nationwide to ensure unhindered sale of petroleum products at government regulated prices. This is in response to reported cases of panic buying in some Petrol Stations across the country. The DPR wishes to state that the current stock level of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in depots nationwide is about 365mil­lion litres and we are also expecting over 800million seaborne litres to be discharged before the end of the week. This translates to a stock level for thirty (30) days’ supply.’’

“To further ensure the supply of products, DPR has fast tracked the grant of product import permits and vessel clearing process to aid rapid stock build up for importers. We here­by appeal to all Depots and Petroleum Product Retail Outlets nationwide to ensure that products are sold at gov­ernment regulated price as the DPR will not hesitate to enforce necessary sanctions against any erring market­er. The General Public is hereby ad­vised not to engage in panic buying as there is adequate supply of petroleum Products nationwide,’’ it had added.

From all indications, it has not yet done much to tackle problems many states, including Lagos and Abuja where long queues still persist. It is against this observation that some observers, especially the Executive Director of Spaces for Change, Mrs. Victoria Ohaeri has called on the Department and other agencies to tackle the pro­longed scarcity and provide ad­equate fuel to before Christmas and new year usually noted for high fuel demand.