Latest News
Fuel scarcity “We can’t restock”, lament petrol marketers
The Nigerian oil marketers seriously lamented the current fuel scarcity in the country, as they are unable to re-stock their products
The oil marketers have said the scarcity of petrol in many parts of Nigeria was not abating because of the current difficulties faced by a lot of fillings stations to restock their tanks with their products.
The recently introduced Customer Express e-payment platform introduced by the Pipelines Product Marketing Company had made it tough for marketers to pay for and lift petrol.
The PPMC is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, while the queues for petrol persisted in parts of Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger states on Wednesday.
Moreover, Dealers under the aegis of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said that the reason why they lacked products is that they are unable to make payments through the new platform.
Billy Gillis-Harry, the president of PETROAN, said, “We are very committed to ensuring that the economy of Nigeria runs smoothly. So that life won’t be difficult for Nigerians.
“The point is that our members are not able to restock. They are not able to restock their filling stations and the reason is that we are finding it difficult to make payments.
“Marketers are finding it difficult to make payments on the new PPMC payment platform. That is the challenge and it is the major reason for the scarcity of petrol now.”
In furtherance, Gillis-Harry said the products could not be sourced at the official ex-depot price as many retail outlets were unable to dispense petrol.
He said private depot owners dispensed the commodity at higher rates, which if purchased by most filling stations, would be sold at prices far above the approved pump price.
He said, “We are trying to make sure that we buy at the approved price since PPMC has not officially increased the ex-depot price from the current rate of N148.6 per litre.
We have been pressured to buy from third and fourth parties at higher prices and when you do that, you run afoul of the law. as we are unable to access it“The law said we should buy at N148 and sell at N160/N163.
Gillis-Harry added, “So our members are not willing to take that kind of risk. They cannot buy at N162/N164 and come back to sell at the price approved by the PPPRA (Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency).”
The PETROAN president ( Gillis- Harry) said the e-payment platform was ordinarily supposed to be the way to do business but stressed that there had been severe broadband challenges.
Therefore, many marketers are finding it difficult to upload the required documents to get the process done easily and faster. So, at times, they are there for one or two weeks trying to upload documents,”
He added, “We have advocated that within this period the agency should give us a reprieve for us to make our payments manually and be able to lift products as fast as possible.”
He denied claims suggesting that the scarcity was due to the hoarding of products by marketers.
The petrol queues in Lagos were lesser than what procured in Abuja and some Northern States due to the large number
The PETROAN president said the petrol queues in Lagos were lesser than what obtained in Abuja and some Northern states because of the large number of private depots in the South-West state.
He also noted that many retail outlets get their products from third party depots, that the cost of petrol in Lagos was around N170 per litre, which is higher than the approved rate.
In addition, NNPC’s spokesperson identified as Kennie Obateru said the oi firm had no problem with the platform when asked what the NNPC was doing concerning the marketers.
He furthermore said, “We have no problem with our payment platform. The online procurement platform known as ‘Customer Express’ @PPMC was introduced last year to guarantee ease of doing business and curb sharp practices.”