Petrol Scarcity: Independent Marketers Ask NNPC To Expand Supply

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been asked to expand its petrol supply to independent marketers to cushion the effect of petrol shortage across the oil rich nation.

Members of the western zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) made the appeal on Thursday.

The association claimed the NNPC had limited the supply of petrol to major marketers alone.

Briefing reporters after its emergency meeting in Ilorin, the south-west zonal chairman of IPMAN, Mr Debo Ahmed, also called for the supply of fuel to most government depots in the zone which presently do not have fuel.

The meeting was held at its office in Ilorin on Thursday.

Mr Ahmed told reporters that the constant fuel scarcity was of great concern to his members and called for pumping of fuel to depots in the south-west especially Ilorin and Mosinmi to reduce the hardship on motorists.

He said that independent marketers had relied on other private deports for supply, a situation he stressed had negative impact, as the private deports sell above official price, thereby forcing independent markets to sell higher.

The members of IPMAN want to correct the situation by calling on the NNPC to pump fuel to government owned depots, as going to Lagos for loading has made the cost unbearable.

Commenting on the non-availability of kerosene, the IPMAN chairman announced that nearly one billion Naira had been paid to Warri refinery to load kerosene for the past 19 months, adding that the shutting down of the facility has been responsible for inability to load kerosene.

The association, however, pleaded for the transfer of their request for kerosene to Lagos in order to sell at official price and also reduce the shortage in the market.

In an attempt to end the scarcity of petrol across Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday confirmed the payment of 407.07 billion Naira for subsidy claims to oil marketers.

Mrs Adeosun said President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that payments be made immediately in order to bring to a quick end to the lingering fuel crisis which has caused great suffering to Nigerian families and businesses.

Few weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari submitted a supplementary budget that made provision for the payment of subsidy to oil markets. The budget has been approved by the National Assembly.