…even when marketers merge to buy products they can’t get to buy
…30-day fuel sufficiency means nothing if it is not at the filling station
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has asked Nigerians not to engage in panic buying of fuel, yet, filling stations across the country are without fuel, and where there are fuels, the prices are way above the regulated price.
While we must commend NNPCL for its efforts at ensuring that filling stations across the country are wet always, it must, however, be noted that the unfavourable economic situations in the country have greatly incapacitated oil marketers /dealers and rendered them ineffective at restocking their filling stations. So the only filling stations seen selling fuel must be rushed to fill their car tanks.
Business Standards investigation revealed that a fuel depot from where on the average between 80 to 100 trucks loaded fuels in a day now hardly records 50 trucks in a week.
This is because the marketers/ dealers have complained that they don’t have money to buy fuel as they cannot afford to sell at prices below the market price.
Even when some of them attempted to merge to purchase a single tanker of 33,000 metric tons just to salvage their situation, the products were not available to pick sometimes.
The fuel situation is gradually becoming a nightmare again for Nigerians as the combination of the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the Naira has made the financial situation of Nigerians worse. Both the fuel dealers, retailers and consumers are worse for it.
For instance, a television journalist who wanted to top the tank of his Toyota Jeep could only get fuel to buy after visiting six filling stations. This was not because there were queues but because the filling stations were empty. By the time he bought the fuel, it was at a price close to N700 per litre in Lagos.
A good number of filling stations in Lagos, except those of the NNPC Retail don’t have fuel. So there is no reason why there would not be panic buying which would lead to long queues at NNPCL filling stations.
The NNPCL retail management in its press statement on Thursday attributed the shortage in supply to what it described as “reduced depot load out in Apapa, Lagos.’To therefore ask that there should not be panic buying would be tantamount to beating a child and asking him or her not to cry. Nigerians desperately need fuel.
The exchange rate has gone up at the black market to about N1,040 to $1. So it is difficult to get products either petrol or diesel to buy by marketers at the international market.NNPCL therefore remains the sole importer of fuel at a very prohibitive price which is costing the country fortunes.
The 30-day sufficiency may not mean anything to ordinary Nigerians except he is able to get to buy at the filling stations with ease.
By the way, if there is a 30-day sufficiency and marketers don’t have the means to buy or pick the product, it will still mean that there is no fuel.
While NNPCL should not be completely blamed for the problem confronting Nigerians, it would be difficult, if not impossible for it to tell Nigerians not to engage in panic buying of petrol. It is only it filling stations that are wet.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had stated on Thursday that it noted the appearance of fuel queues in some parts of Lagos and a few other locations around the country.
The retail management of the NNPCL said the queues are due to reduced depot loadout in Apapa, Lagos over a few days. It added that the root cause of the queues has since been addressed.
“We assure all Nigerians that there is ample supply with a sufficiency of at least 30 days,” the statement said.
