Petrol scarcity may not abate any soon as the ex-depot price has exceeded N165 per litre instead of the official N158.5 per litre at the private depots.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), National President, Alhaji Debo Ahmed stated this in an interview.

He claimed his members are neither hoarding nor smuggling petrol to neighbouring countries. According to him: “Petrol market is not going on well. You know what is happening: we have scarcity.

“It depends on the depot. Some of them are selling at N165.

“None of my members is hoarding any fuel. If they hoard it, it is tying down their capital. It is illegal. No, they don’t smuggle. We have Customs. Smuggling cannot be done because all the borders are monitored.”

He called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to fast track the importation of the PMS to bridge demand gap.

Ahmed was worried that Nigerians are suffering due to acute shortage of petrol.

The IPMAN boss stressed: “What I really want to add is that NNPC should speed up importation of the product so that they can meet up. People are suffering in this country.

“They (NNPC) should import more so that the product will be available  everywhere.”

IPMAN Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi, opened up that maketers were not loading PMS from private depot because there was no profit.

Noting that it was partly the cause of the current fuel scarcity, he charged the NNPC and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to compel the private depots to sell the fuel at the official rate.

On contaminated petrol, Maigandi revealed that his members have been directed to take an inventory of the toxic fuel.

According to him, the members are complying with the instructions that they should not sell it. This, he said, has led to the decline in the news about the harm of the toxic petrol.

His words: “People have to buy this product as much as N165/litre and when they do they sell it at N162 to N165 per litre. So, marketers  don’t buy it because there is no  profit.

“That one too, is contributing to the scarcity  and that is why some of the filling stations  are not buying nor selling.

“The NNPC and the regulatory agencies should intervene so that the depots sell at the government stipulated rates. This will allow the marketers to load and sell.

Contaminated  petrol : “we even asked our members to go round and take the inventory.  We have told them that nobody should sell that contaminated  fuel no matter what. The members are really complying.

That is why you have not been hearing any issue of anything contaminated. All that you hear is just the queue.”

Source: The Nation