Scarcity: NNPC places order for 1bn litres of petrol

The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday began fresh measures to halt what it described as artificially induced petrol scarcity noticeable in some parts of the country.
To this end, the corporation has ordered the importation of more than one billion litres of petrol in March to address short fall in supply
The Group Managing Director (GMD), NNPC, Dr Joseph Dawha, in conjunction with the Chief Executive Officers of the NNPC subsidiaries, began detailed monitoring of fuel stations in Abuja.
Others in the exercise are the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr Farouk Ahmed, and the Managing Director of Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Mr Haruna Momoh,
Also in the team was the Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr George Osahon.
Dawha said the exercise was to checkmate hoarding and panic buying of petrol, particularly in Abuja, Lagos and its environs.
The GMD said there was enough petrol in the nation’s stock to take care of the need of motorists.
He said as the supplier of last resort, the corporation was doing everything within its mandate to alleviate the avoidable hardship caused by the situation.
The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, said the problem was more of artificial because there were enough products.
“ The problem we have is not really with the supply because there is enough supply .
“The PPMC has almost more than 800,000 metric tones that will be arriving in the month of March which is over a billion litres in terms of our daily consumption.
“Other marketers are also bringing in their cargo so by the end of the week, hopefully, everything will be clear.
“I think we should just encourage the people to desist from panic buying; things are going to be very okay,” Ahmed said.
The Managing Director of PPMC said the corporation had more than enough of the products in the stock for the entire nation.
Momoh explained that there was a good build up till April and with this build up, “we are very confident that we will not have any problem in terms of supply.
“There are challenges with distributions; we will continue to handle those challenges and we try everything possible to make it seamless, smooth and as stable as possible beyond April,” he said.
He said the agency was putting in measures place to address other challenges beyond April.
He said that the other challenges which other marketers, who happened to be the other half in the chains of supply, would be addressed by the PPPRA.
The Director of DPR said the agency had measures to address hoarding and hiking of pump price above official price.
Osahon said the agency would collaborate with the security agencies to force marketers to sell products at the regulated price.
“We are going to get the law enforcement agencies to force them to sell and at the regulated price.
“We are doing that at several filling stations around the country; we are doing that to support PPMC and PPPRA and make sure that these things ease off as soon as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) on Monday in Abuja called on the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to intervene in the current fuel crisis.
Mr Isaac Aberare, the NUPENG General Secretary, said in Abuja that the intervention of the minister was imperative in the resolution of the crisis.
Aberare also called for the intervention of the NNPC, Petroleum, Pricing, and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and major players in the sector to tackle the scarcity.
“It is the intervention of the minister that can adequately solve the problem.
“She is the one who promised the marketers in February that in March, their outstanding subsidy amounting to N264 billion will be paid.‘’
He said that the marketers had claimed that the amount of money being owed them was huge and this had been suffocating their business.
The NUPENG General Secretary said that the marketers had also claimed that their cash was trapped such that they could not import the product unless they were paid.
“It is when the money is released that they can import petroleum products; for us as a union, we have little or nothing to address the situation.
“Our tanker drivers are not on strike; they are available to load the trucks but the product is not there for them to carry, so that is the situation,” he added.
In Abuja, the fuel scarcity is biting harder on the residents as motorists queue for hours and pass nights at filling stations in search of petrol.
On Monday, many commuters were stranded at different bus stops due to lack of vehicles.
The few vehicles that were plying the road jerked up their fares by 50 per cent.
It was observed that most of the filling stations in the Abuja metropolis were not selling, except few that rationed the sales from one or two pumps.
Although their pump prices remained N87 per litre, black market operators had a field day on the commuters as they sold between N120 and N200 per litre, depending on bargain power.
At the NNPC mega fill station on Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Central Area, long queues of vehicles were on three lanes blocking the entire road and forcing motorists to drive against the traffic.
The chaotic situation was also the same at the Forte Oil, adjacent to the NNPC mega station, where the queue stretched to the UAC fence.
The Conoil and Total filling stations opposite NNPC Headquarter delayed selling until afternoon, with the queues by hundreds of motorists who had passed the previous nights, forming circles.
The circles stretched from the stations through the Bureau of Statistics Complex, to the Unity Bank building, and back to NNPC towers.
Motorists went through hectic time under the scorching sun, trying to buy the commodity until relief finally came their way when four trucks loaded with the product were received at noon by ConOil in particular.
It was observed that Mobil filling station, NNPC franchised station and another private filling stations on Olusegun Obasanjo way, were not selling while also most of the filling stations on Obafemi Awolowo Way were dried.
The situation was not different with most filling stations along Airport road, AYA, Maraba, Kubwa, Suleja and other neighbouring towns.
Although their pump prices remained N87 per litre, black market operators sold to motorists between N120 and N200 per litre, depending on the bargaining power.
The black marketers, who cashed in on the situation to sell at prohibited rates to motorists, said they also bought at exorbitant price from motorcyclists or filling stations in the night.
Most of the motorists said they had to sleep at filling stations before they could get fuel to buy.
A civil servant, who simply called his name as Mr. Mohammed, said all efforts to get fuel over the weekend proved abortive as most of them refused to sell.
Mohammed said he had to wake up very early in the morning before he could manage to get fuel into his car.
Another motorist, Mr Olamikan Gabriel, said he had been moving from one filling station to the other without any result.
“Early this morning, I was at the National Assembly but I could not get; I left there and went to another station around Wuse and its the story; see me here at Total filling station again.
“The unfortunate thing is that there is no hope of getting fuel here; you can see the queue; they have even closed their gate,” he said.
It was the same situation in Lagos as long queue of motorists disturbed the free flow of traffic in some minor and major roads. Most of the filling stations remained shut.
From Berger Bus Stop to Fadeyi area along the popular Ikorodu road, only Conoil at Onipanu and Oando at Fadeyi were open and selling petrol to motorists.
The other filling stations along the road which include Total oil at Fadeyi, Oando in Berger, Oando in Anthony, Conoil in Onipanu and MRS at Onipanu were all shut.
Some of the motorists said that they had been on queue for hours waiting to get petrol.
Mr TundeAdewale, a trader at Balogun Market, said that he had spent three hours on queue.
“Most of the filling stations selling in my area at Agbado are selling above the pump price so I won’t mind staying here for hours as long as I get the product.
“They are selling at N87 per litre here but the queue is slow but the management has assured us that they have enough products in stock,” he said.