Independent petroleum marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has blamed the petrol queues which surfaced across some states of the federation at the weekend on private depot owners. IPMAN described the development as “artificial scarcity.”
The National President, IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, in a telephone interview yesterday insisted that IPMAN member-owned trucks have been loading petrol from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) depots where the product is available and distributing same to their outlets.
He however explained that the major challenge in areas where the queues exist is due to the high cost of the ex-depot price of petrol, which now stands at N715 per litre from private depots. The IPMAN boss insisted that there is more than enough petroleum in the country and as such there is not meant to be queue anywhere across the country.
“The private depots have petroleum products but selling at N715 per liter ex depot price. The queues you are seeing is artificial creation of scarcity by the depot owners; we cannot allow them to continue doing things like this; so we are advising the NNPCL management on the real fact of the situation. This is why NNPCL should be giving us (IPMAN) products directly so that situations like this won’t be re occurring,” Maignadi said.
According to him, although most of the private depot owners have product to sell, but they do not own filling stations, so they decided to hike the price ex depot. “In Lagos, NNPCL sells petrol at N568 per litre. So our members cannot buy the product at N715 and discharge in Lagos. That is why you see that there are queues in Lagos but in other places where our members can still add their margin even when they buy at N715 per liter from the private depots, then they are selling and no queues. You know that IPMAN controls over 80 per cent of petrol filling stations in the country; so immediately IPMAN is unable to sell petrol, there will be scarcity in the country,” he further explained.
The IPMAN boss also blamed the inability of the NNPCL to adequately cater to their supply need because of the vandalism on their network channels. “NNPCL is not sufficiently giving us products through in their depots like Mosinmi, Ibadan and Ilorin, due to vandalism of their pipelines. This is why we as IPMAN have even partnered with the NNPCL to see how and where we can assist in safeguarding the pipelines,” he said.
Maigandi assured that the queues will not last long because petrol is readily available in more than enough quantity in the country, but the challenge is the depots owners who have hike the price.
But the Executive Secretary, Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN), Clement Isong, however said there is no cause for alarm as the product is available.
Isong, in a telephone interview with The Nation, yesterday, explained that the heavy rains and storms of last week affected logistics at depots leading to the queues being witnessed.
“The supply chain was disrupted. For a few days last week, there was heavy rain which disrupted operations at depots and loading bays. Petrol cannot be loaded during rainstorm and lightening. The roads were flooded and trucks could either not move or were moving slowly. So we lost two or three days of loading activities and it’s the backflow of this that has led to the queues. But the queues will disappear because petrol is very much available, so there’s nothing to worry about,” Isong explained.
When The Nation contacted the Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Olufemi Adewole, he asked for time to confirm and confer with “Abuja” before responding.
“I appreciate your effort in reaching out to us, but I cannot comment on this at the moment. I have to confer with Abuja. I saw the queues myself; i don’t know of the allegation so I have to ask first before responding; so as at this moment, I cannot give u an appropriate response. Once I get a response I will call you or send you a message. So if I can get to it I will send you a response,” Adewole said.
