Scarcity: Oil marketers concentrate on their localities

With supply and distribution problems worsening in the weekend, sources in the country’s downstream sub-sector have raised the alarm over most oil marketers concentrating on their localities.

Our correspondent learnt that most oil marketers, who, hitherto took products from Lagos depots to other parts of the country (like the far east and north), have now suspended the action, and were concentrating on their localities.

This development, however, has been attributed to limited stock of petrol in depots, especially in Lagos.

“Most oil marketers now supply petrol just within their local base. Those from Lagos can’t bridge the east and north now because their low stock of petrol on ground,” a top official of petroleum tankers’ association in Lagos told our correspondent in confidence.

Loading of products by oil tankers from depots as at Friday had drastically dropped by about 50 per cent. The situation, our correspondent learnt from sources, was further deteriorating.

Still, oil tankers, which had gone to load products from depots, were unattended to, as there were, not enough petrol to go round.

This, however, depicts a short in supply of product to depots, which automatically translates to poor supply to filling stations for final users.

The President, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (South-West branch), Alhaji Toknbo Korodo, had confirmed to our correspondent that loading of products had dropped drastically by about 50 per cent.

He said then, “A depot which served about 200 trucks per day now serves just 60 t0 70 trucks per day as a result of product unavailability. Trucks used to load overnight before, but now they close by 4pm daily.”

Some major oil marketers, on Thursday, had also complained that they had run out of Premium Motor Spirit stock.

The marketers, who raised the alarm when reached by our correspondent, stressed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was not supplying them product as it (NNPC) had claimed.

Major oil marketers control over 50 per cent of market supply of petroleum products in the country.

The top executive of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, said currently there was no PMS stock at Apapa, Lagos.

The source said though the NNPC had publicly announced that it had over 30-day sufficiency of the product, the product was nowhere to be found among its members as at Thursday, except for the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company Plc, which has a stock of only 3,000 tonnes (of petrol).

He said, “There is no PMS stock in Apapa as we speak. If at all NNPC has products, it is not giving us.

“Since Monday, we have been shouting that supply was very low. In fact, now, only NIPCO has 3,000 tonnes of product.”

Despite these anomalies, the NNPC had continued to claim that there was enough of the product to last for a minimum of 30 days.

But when our correspondent reached the Chairman, Jetty and Petroleum Tank Farm Owners of Nigeria, and Chief Executive Officer, Capital Oil, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba, he said his company still had stock from Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, and it was currently loading product.

Some members of MOMAN and Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association that spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on the issue, also expressed mixed views.

The immediate chairman, DAPPMA, Chief Sylvester Okoli, told our correspondent that his company, WABECO, did not have stock of PMS. But, he, however, expressed optimism that the situation might change soon as PPMC was said to have enough product to go round.