Financial Energy Review
Oil marketers said the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, in many parts of Nigeria was due to the unavailability of mother vessels to ship the product to the country.
Also, they insisted on raising the price of the commodity following the hike in the rate of the United States dollar against the naira, as it was gathered that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was lacking products in many of its depots.
“There is a serious lag in product sufficiency from NNPC because of the unavailability of mother vessels. These are vessels that ship the product from abroad. That is why we have a gap,” the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu said.
He added, “It is not just about flood, because the scarcity is hitting many other parts of the country. There was serious scarcity in Port Harcourt and you can see what is happening in Lagos now. In Abuja it has been there since.”
Ukadike stated that depots in the western zone were lacking products, as “all the private depots and even NNPC don’t have products.”
He said, “In Port Harcourt, there is no product in private depots, except that we heard this (Wednesday) evening that some products are coming to Masters Energy Depot.
“Also, we now buy products from depots at N179 – N180/litre; for those who manage to get. That is why we the independent marketers are tired of this epileptic distribution of PMS.
“It is high time the Federal Government revived the refineries. Our dependence on imports is really devaluing our naira and bringing suffering on the masses. One dollar is now N760 at the parallel market.”
He stated that when the dollar strenthened, the cost of PMS locally would definitely rise because Nigeria was importing the commodity.
