Fuel queues return as stocks deplete at Apapa depots

LOADING at Apapa depot in Lagos declined yesterday, as the volume of petrol tankers hit an all time low, an indication that there was acute shortage of products.

The development has, however, led to long queues of tankers waiting to evacuate petroleum products, thus compounding the traffic situation.

A visit by Daily Sun to some depots in Apapa, Lagos which included Forte Oil, Nipco and Aiteo, revealed non-loading activities for tankers.

One of the marketers who spoke to Daily Sun on condition of anonymity decried the attitude of the Federal Government towards easing the forex shortage challenge confronting marketers.
He said the two cargoes brought in by his company in early November, had been exhausted, while all efforts to source forex were futile.

He said the attitude of government removing subsidy through the back door was causing a lot of disruption to the petroleum products supply chain.

“The strategy deployed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) to flood the market with petroleum products during the Yuletide, using Independent Petroleum Marketers (IPMAN) members on buy now, pay later, is not sustainable.

“IPMAN members control more than 60 per cent of fuel retail outlets in this country. A situation whereby NNPC gives two stations in a state product on credit basis cannot work. Can two stations service a state?

“Let government come out openly to remove subsidy. A situation whereby we cannot source forex through the official window is not good for our business. If they remove subsidy, we can source forex at the black market, and sell at whatever price, if that is what they want,’’ the frustrated marketer explained.

An official of IPMAN, who also does not want to be named, said the latest import allocation quota recently released by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) would further spell doom for the sector and compound fuel scarcity situation in the country.

Under the latetest allocation of 1.5 million tonnes to marketers, approval for private depots owners and marketers was slashed by over 70 per cent, leaving them with 22 percent and NNPC 78 percent.
The IPMAN source said the reduction in the PPPRA allocation is about 13 per cent reduction in the volume of imports re- leased for the second quarter of 2015.Petrol imports by private marketers and importers equally crashed to 7.7 percent in the last quarter of 2015.

The source said the reduction of importers from 29 to 20 marketers and depot owners, may not be unconnected with the in- ability of independent marketers to meet up with their allocations for the last quarter of 2015.

Meanwhile,the compliance level of the new fuel price of N86.50k as approved by the PPPRA differed in some parts of Lagos with majority of the fuel stations shutting down operations.
In Ojokoro Local Government, Conoil in New Oko Oba, NNPC, Fowobi, Conoil Oil Iju road were shut as at 11.30am yesterday.

The only station dispensing at 11.42am was the NNPC retail outlet on Iju and that was in deference to the PPPRA template, it sold a litre of petrol for N87 as against the approved price of N86.50k.
Source:The Sun