Nigerians are in for a torrid festive season as petroleum product marketers have raised alarm that the products they have in stock are fast running out, BusinessDay market survey reveals.
Filing stations visited shows that motorists continue to face problems as most of them across Lagos complained that they would soon stop as their stocks of petroleum products were fast running dry without any hope of supply.
Most of the filling stations visited in search of fuel were out of stock as long queues of vehicles were witnessed where fuel was available.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has blamed the current fuel queues across the country on hoarding by some marketers even as he vowed to slam appropriate sanctions against those engaged in such activity.
The minister declared this on Thursday in a joint press conference with some agencies of government in the sector on the growing fuel queues across the country, saying the ministry had taken emergency measures that would end the crisis by the weekend.
He told the conference that there was “zero scarcity but queues persist” because of hoarding resultant from unfounded rumours of products price increase, which created a ripple effect across major cities, adding that queues became visible because of a rush to buy products before supposed price increase.
An official from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has assured that the situation is normalising in Lagos and its environs.
In a telephone interview with BusinessDay on Thursday, Paul Osu, the spokesperson of DPR said his team was out to ensure that marketers of the petroleum products with the product sell to motorists.
He noted that some marketers may be involved in hoarding of their products, but warned that it would not hesitate to arrest and prosecute errant operators.
Osu opined that every effort is being made to ensure that the petroleum products’ supply and distribution situation in the country is normalised. Marketers must ensure that petroleum products get across to Nigerians quickly and at the regulated prices.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) one of the country’s two main oil unions on Thursday threatened to launch a nationwide strike from December 18 over what it said was a “mass sacking of workers that joined the union.”
If the government fails to force the management of domestic oil and gas companies and marginal field operators to recall laid-off union members, its workers will go on strike, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said.
PENGASSAN did not say how many workers were laid off and union officials did not respond to calls and messages.
Oil output from Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude exporter, has been volatile over the past two years due to militant attacks, pipeline theft and sabotage and industrial action.
Strikes by PENGASSAN workers in December last year at ExxonMobil facilities affected production and dented exports from the company’s fields according to oil traders and Reuters oil export data.
Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Thursday that the government would engage with PENGASSAN to resolve the dispute “as soon as possible.”
“We are looking at about 4 cargoes coming in over the next few days plus cumulatively about 20 to 30 cargoes. We are making deliberate effort to quicken the process of delivering the ones that we are expecting. But in the interim we are resorting to what is in the storage, and then luckily the refinery in Kaduna is streaming and is beginning to produce.
“But over and above that is the fact that hoarding obviously kicks in. Anytime we have gap in terms of supply the problems would have been better managed if dealers and agents don’t try to make quick gains. So there is quite a bit of hoarding, which is also being addressed. We have directed Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to release everything that they have in storage and that is affecting supplies very positively.
“There is a stricter directive and monitoring by all the agencies. Petroleum Products Price Regulatory agency (PPRA) are handling that and the security agencies are also helping on areas we notice some resistance in complying. We have instructed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to impose very strict penalties on any depots that are seen to be hoarding petroleum products. Some of them do this to create artificial scarcity so that they can sell at a higher price. So the DPR has been instructed to take firm actions against those people and make sure they pay penalties,” he said.
He promised the Nigerian public of an improved supply stressing that the queues in Lagos have largely reduced following prompt intervention by the government saying that queues in Abuja will thin out completely by weekend. He also said that Kaduna area would be served by the refinery and the reserves.
He however, admitted that there was some level of gap in terms of volume noting that the gap arose because the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the only one importing products in the country as most of the people expected to bring in products were not able to bring in products. He disclosed that they might not be able to do so until January “so you have the NNPC trying to fill the requirements on 100% capacity basis,” he said.
On action taken so far to address the crisis the Minister said “the government is enforcing a stricter monitoring of supply and distribution by regulatory agencies such as the DPR and the PPPRA adding that additional trucking to major cities by the NNPC is using their strategic reserves from Suleija, Minna, Gusau and Gombe. He said that Abuja, Kano, Sokoto axis is feeding the north West Region and the north east.
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