Follow Us on Google
By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said despite assurances by the Federal Government, fuel supply gap has continued to widen.
National President of IPMAN, Mr. Debo Ahmed, in an interview with Daily Sun yesterday, said the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol was still grossly inadequate compared to the country’s demand.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, had while on a tour of selected fuel stations and depots in Lagos on February 10, assured that long queues at fuel stations across the country will disappear by the following week.
The assurance according to Sylva was sequel to steps currently being enforced to stop the ongoing petrol crisis across the country.
He added that an inter-ministerial intervention initiated by the Federal Government was set up to ensure management of petrol distribution across the country.
But, findings by Daily Sun across the fuel stations in Lagos at the weekend showed that the assurance by Sylva was yet to manifest as fuel queues was observed in majority of the fuel stations within Lagos metropolis.
Recall that the Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, had while on a live interview on Channels Television on February 7, assured Nigerians that the lingering fuel scarcity will ease off the following week.
But two weeks after that promise, Nigerians are yet to heave a sigh of relief as fuel queues still remain across fuel stations.
Though, Kyari said he could not assure that the queues at the fuel stations would disappear, he promised that there would be significant improvement in the next one week.
‘‘Now within the next one week, I am not saying you are going to have zero queues within the next one week, no, because a number of things are out of our control, and of course the market forces will determine some of these issues.
“But I believe that we are going to see substantial and relative ease compared to today in the next one week. I apologise for the situation on behalf of all of us in the oil and gas industry,’’ he said.
Ahmed said the NNPC was only struggling to meet up with the country’s demand, saying the reality on ground was show a widening gap.
He added that the promise by NNPCL to make products available to IPMAN members at the official ex-depot price of N174 per litre was just a drop of water in the ocean.
He explained that was was being supply to IPMAN members under the arraignment was not in any way commensurate with product demand.
‘‘There is still a huge gap between demand and supply and that gap must be closed up for the queues to ease off. But as at today, we have a widening gap between product demand and supply.
But if they can increase the level of import as soon as possible, we may witness some level of progress before the election,” he said.
