•It’s death knell….motorists •We’re addressing it say FG, marketers
From Uche Usim, Abuja
Abuja motorists were tormented on Tuesday when many filling stations shut down due to lack of petrol. This led to queues in the few outfits that dispensed the commodity.
Motorists described the development as a terrible situation designed for human extermination.
From Kubwa to Zuba, Lugbe to CBD and environs, pockets of queues were noticed. This rattled many consumers who are now engaged in panic buying to hedge against an anticipated price increase, especially as the landing cost of petrol is now N720/litre.
Bernard Patrick, a taxi driver lamented: “I thought they said that once the subsidy on petrol is yanked off, we shall no longer suffer shortages. There won’t be queues. What am I seeing here? At N619/litre, I can’t imagine borrowing money to buy fuel because they want to increase the price. They want to wipe out the masses with horrible economic policies”, he lamented.
Clara Egbufor, a civil servant, also lamented.
“I need this petrol for school runs. Otherwise, I would have rushed out to top up my vehicle’s petrol tank.
“Life is becoming unbearable. Crimes have quadrupled. Inflation has eaten your salary before it’s paid. This is terrible”, she lamented.
Before now, oil marketers alerted Nigerians to mass shutdowns of filling stations and tankers as they succumb to a litany of challenges asphyxiating them.
Top on the list is their inability to secure foreign exchange and bank loans to import products. Other challenges are skyrocketing prices of diesel (N1,100/litre), costly tanker spare parts, bad roads, incredible bureaucratic bottlenecks at the ports, naira’s rapid depreciation, insecurity leading to incessant attacks on drivers and other challenges that hamper product procurement and distribution.
However, the federal government, oil marketers, transporters and other stakeholders in the petroleum products distribution ecosystem met on Monday to discuss ways of guaranteeing uninterrupted supply of fuel across the country.
The meeting was at the instance of the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed and held at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
In attendance were representatives from the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners among other stakeholders.
The meeting sought to address issues around foreign exchange scarcity, bad roads, banks reluctance to advance credit to marketers, insecurity, the consequences of the rising cost of crude oil, among others.
In his remarks, Ahmed said it was soothing to secure marketers assurances of product availability to keep the wheels of the economy rolling.
“We had very robust discussions and they (oil marketers) expressed their concerns and also areas where we can support both the marketers and transporters to ensure that there is flow of petrol products across the country.
“So, NNPC has assured of supply and also the marketers have expressed their concerns about the availability of foreign exchange in order to also import and sell at the price.
“As regulators, we can continue to say the market is open for everybody and all those who have applied for licenses, over 90 marketing companies have gotten. We have given them access to all the required support that they needed in order to ensure there is a constant supply of products in the country.”
On the assistance being given on the issue of foreign exchange challenges faced by marketers, the NMDPRA boss explained that engagement is ongoing with the Central Bank of Nigeria in that direction.
Also speaking, the Executive Vice President, Upstream, NNPC Limited, Mr Dapo Segun assured of the commitment of the national oil company to make petroleum products available for Nigerians.
He said, “NNPC will continue to shop for supply. And yes, we’ve had discussions with other industry players on the issues affecting the industry.
“We are looking at ways to resolve these issues. We, at NNPC will continue to make sure that supply is there and we will also support the industry.”
The Chairman of DAPPMAN, Mrs Winifred Akpani, told journalists that there was adequate supply of the products and there was no need for panic buying.