Following
the refusal by banks to fund the importation of fuel products on
account of unpaid subsidy claims by the federal government, fuel
scarcity in the country took a turn for the worse on Monday as virtually
all private marketers turned to the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) for products.
As fuel scarcity bit
harder, long queues were evident at retail outlets in Lagos, Abuja and
other cities in the country, with some petrol stations in Abuja selling
fuel at N120 per litre.
However, the Major Oil Marketers
Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has cautioned against panic buying,
promising that supply would improve once the federal government pays
outstanding subsidy claims this week.
Owing to
the shortfall, it was gathered that NNPC has increased the volume of
imports, with three imported cargoes conveying products to the three
jetties in Apapa, which receive over 50 per cent of imported products in
the country.
Investigations revealed that at the North Oil
Jetty (NOJ) – one of the Apapa jetties – a vessel, TORM FREYA, brought
in by NNPC yesterday discharged 23 million litres of petrol to the NIPCO
and Aiteo tank farms.
Under normal circumstances, NOJ is dedicated to imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene and base oils.
But a source at the jetty told ThisDay that due to the prevailing emergency, they had to flush the line to avoid contamination, so that PMS vessels could discharge.
As TORM FREYA was discharging, a second vessel imported by NNPC, TORM
NILY, was also waiting to berth at the Bulk Oil Jetty also in Apapa, to
discharge to major marketers.
It was also learnt that a third NNPC vessel, MT BADE, arrived yesterday at the Petroleum Wharf Apapa (PWA).
The vessel will discharge products to Oando, Total and other marketers with tank farms in the area.
Other jetties are at the Folawiyo depot and in the Ibafo area, and have
received imported products for MRS and Capital Oil. However, all the
available products in the said jetties, it was learnt, belong to NNPC.
Some of the marketers confirmed that only NNPC was importing products, thus tightening the fuel supply situation.
They blamed the current scarcity on the failure of government to pay the outstanding N264 billion subsidy claims.
The marketers also stated that the banks had refused to give them
credit facilities because of their unpaid loans which would have been
offset if government had paid their claims.
Though the
Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, met with the marketers in Lagos last week and promised
to pay the claims before the end of this month, the marketers had warned
that it would take weeks for the supply situation to normalise.
Credit: ThisDay
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