The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that the volume of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also called petrol supplied to marketers has dropped by 50 percent from July last year.
Zarma Mustapha, deputy president, IPMAN, made this known during an interview on a local broadcast station on Friday. According to him, the country is in a complex situation owing to the burden of subsidies that the government is carrying, which is no more sustainable.
Mustapha said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, the sole importer of petrol has been hitting hard on the scarcity of funds from the Federal Government.
Due to the shortage in funds, he said that marketers do not receive the usual supply of petrol at the loading ports. “We do not get 50 percent of what we usually get at the loading port. The volume of liftings has dropped to about 50 percent of 40 percent from July or August last year.”
According to him, the NNPC, on November 29, 2022, said it had a national PMS stock of over 2 billion litres, equivalent to over 30 days of sufficiency.
However, Mustapha theorised that the lingering presence of queues at fuel stations across the nation may be due to the high cost of the subsidy. “The more the volume imported, the more the cost of the subsidy,” he said.
“It does not seem that they are bringing in more. If they are bringing in more, we would be having the same volume that we usually get at the loading point.
“As of today, with what is trending in the private depots, the volume available is not enough. The private depots also contribute by not giving the product as it is being regulated by the NNPC.”
On the recent new regulated price, he said the regulatory body would be in the best position to answer the public and give details on why and how the price was adjusted to the new one.
However, he explained “The cost of bringing the products to the public is not going to be achievable at the former price. With all sense of justification, I believe the regulatory body agreed to raise it up to the new amount.”
Mustapha further said that he brought the product in Lagos at a depot at N247 per litre to be transported down to the far North at the cost of N50-N60 per litre. Even we as independent marketers do not really understand what is happening.
“As of yesterday, it is going for about N240 in Lagos, N235 in Warri, and N240 in Port Harcourt. In Calabar, it is as high as N250 per litre. As a marketer, you will buy that product for upward transmission to where your retail outlet is. You will transport it yourself,” he said.
Mustapha further said that the whole concept of importation is not sustainable, as we need to look in ways and see how best we can be able to produce our product locally.
“The rate at which our population and demand for transportation and petroleum needs is growing cannot be sustained through importation,” he said
“If we have all our refineries producing, transporting it through the pipeline and all the 21 depots across the country will solve the whole issue of on and off scarcity in the country. This on-and-off scarcity is going to continue until we develop our own refineries.”
