The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has said the petrol scarcity Nigerians are facing at filling stations across the country is due to dollar shortages and distribution bottlenecks and called for full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.
“These queues are caused by exceptionally high demand and bottlenecks in the fuel distribution chain. The major cause is the shortage and high (US Dollar) costs of daughter’s vessels for ferrying product from mother vessels to depots along the coast,” the statement said.
“Next is the inadequate number of trucks to meet the demand to deliver products from depots to filling stations nationwide. These high logistics and exchange rate costs continue to put pressure on prices at the pump.”
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According to the statement, a final resolution to these challenges will be the full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector to encourage the liberalisation of supply and long-term investments in distribution assets.
“We urge the government to work towards this end goal,” the major oil marketer said in the statement.
“Over the past three months, staff and management of MOMAN companies have worked diligently at depots and filling stations to relieve the stress faced by customers through the Christmas and New year period.
“Our members have again agreed to extend depot loading hours as well as keep strategically situated service stations open for longer hours to ease access to fuels for our customers.”
The major oil marketer also said it will continue to use its best endeavours to ensure that product is sold at the pump at prices currently approved by the Regulatory Authorities, despite pressure on price by demand and costs in our immediate operating environment.
