THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to revive its depots across the country to address supply chain disruptions.
IPMAN Deputy National President, Zarama Mustapha, made this call on Channels television breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, yesterday morning.
Checks by NaijaTimes showed that there has been recurring scarcity of petroleum products in different parts of the country in the past six months.
In Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital, the scarcity appears to be biting more, as only few outlets are selling the product, with long queues that usually spill onto major highways.
Many independent outlets in Lagos that have the product are selling between N220 and N230 as of yesterday, while major marketers’ outlets that sells at government-approved price has the most queues.
Zarama blamed the scarcity on logistics issues affecting supply chain within the industry and making it difficult for marketers to sell at government-regulated prices.
According to him the current agreed price at which the NNPC is supposed to sell to independent marketers is N148 per litre but they don’t get the product at that price, a situation that makes it difficult to sell at the approved rate.
He said, “We are getting the product as high as N195 to N210 from the depot owners and that is not really sustainable.”
Zarama called on regulatory authorities in the midstream and downstream sub-sector to intervene and see how best to address the issue for better distribution management.
NNPC is in charge of importing the product but they don’t have enough storage facility; hence, the challenge of engaging private depot owners, who (more or less) buy from them.
“The whole industry is in a situation whereby the supply chain has a lot of logistics problems as it relates to getting the products from the mother vessel down to the depots.
“From the depots down to various retail outlets – being transported by trucks across the country. We have a lot of challenges in terms of distribution of the product,” he added.
To further buttress the cause of the current scarcity in Lagos, the IPMAN deputy national president said there was slow discharge of petrol product from vessels to depots last week because of some challenges between depot owners and the NNPC.
“I will like to call on the NNPC in particular to do everything possible to revive their depots. Most of the NNPC depots are not working. I know they are facing a lot of challenges as regards sending petroleum products through pipelines and the attendant pipeline vandalisation and other things.
“There is need for them to have more private depots at the coastal areas, just like any other private depots that have developed their depots. This is so that if it is NNPC’s product, we still get it at that N148,” he stated.
Zarama further said it is very difficult to get the product at that price now because when NNPC imports petrol, about 80 percent is supplied to private depot owners for upward sales to independent marketers who convey the product to their retail outlet across the country.
He also lamented extortion of marketers by security officers who mount road blocks on the nation’s highways, saying such also adds to cost issues that they face.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) had last month threatened to shutdown supply of petrol due to rampant extortion, intimidation, and violent attacks of its members by hoodlums.
On sustainable solution to the scarcity challenge, Zarama said government should work hard to ensure that the refineries are working to reduce dependence on importation.
