Oil marketers have attributed the current scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, to ongoing logistics challenges.
This was disclosed by Billy Gillis-Harry, President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association (PETROAN), during an appearance on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday.
According to Gillis-Harry, oil marketers are currently supply-constrained and can only “distribute what we have.”
He said, “I think until we get our supply challenges sorted out efficiently and abundantly, we will not be able to get out of this circle.
“I believe you must have heard the NNPC’s communications director who explained that the issues at stake are still logistics-related.
“So until they get that resolved, we may just be managing the little they bring, and give to us to distribute among our members.
“NNPCL is doing its best to bring in products bit by bit, and we can only supply what we have.”
When asked to give further explanation on what the logistics challenges were all about, he said, “The logistics issue is about ship-to-ship transfer. Until the ship gets products, it cannot deliver to any of the depots. And until depots have products, we the retailers cannot also have access to products,”
He however assured that marketers were in talks with the NNPCL over supply challenges.
He said, “We have been speaking with NNPCL. We encourage them to do more, and I can assure you that they are trying their best.”
Gillis-Harry’s clarification on the scarcity comes following lingering shortages of products, especially in the northern parts of the country.
The scarcity, however, spread to Lagos over the weekend.
Channels Television had reported that a litre of the product now sells for between ₦800-₦1,000 in some filling stations, a move that increased the cost of transportation.
Some filling stations were, however, not selling the product as black market racketeers took advantage of the situation to do brisk business.
This is as reports emanated last week, linking the scarcity to debt owed to international oil traders by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
However, in a response on Sunday, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye debunked the report.
Soneye, however, acknowledged that it is normal to owe at one point or the other since the oil trading business, transactions are carried out on credit.
“But NNPC Ltd., through its subsidiary, NNPC Trading, has many open trade credit lines from several traders.
“The company is paying its obligations of related invoices on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis,” he said.