Petrol loading at depots in Lagos has continued to drop following a significant reduction in the volume of the product being imported in recent times.
However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said on Thursday that its downstream subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, had 1.2 billion litres of petrol in stock.
In Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and neighbouring states, there were queues at some filling stations selling petrol on Thursday; but the NNPC, in its statement, said the 1.2 billion litres would be sufficient for 31 days going by the 40-million-litre daily consumption figure of the product in the country.
A visit by one of our correspondents to Apapa revealed a chaotic situation as petrol tankers were seen parked on both sides of the road with no hope of getting the product. This resulted in gridlock in the area.
It was gathered that independent oil marketers were not loading petrol, while only the major marketers and members of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association were loading but below capacity as there was limited quantity of the product in stock.
Sources said almost all the marketers had suspended further importation of petrol, because they were not ready to expose their business to debts.
Four of the depots visited by one of our correspondents had petrol stock from the NNPC/PPMC in their tanks.
A spokesperson for one of the major marketers told one of our correspondents in confidence that loading had dropped drastically at his company’s depot and “the quantity of the product we are loading now is far below what we used to get.”
He explained, “For instance, we used to do overnight loading to meet up with product shortage whenever scarcity is experienced. But now, nobody does overnight loading because there is no need for it. There are no products to load.”
The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, confirmed that loading had dropped on account of depleting stock of the PPMC and members of MOMAN.
According to him, the decision by the independent petroleum marketers to stop product lifting is also not helping matters.
“The situation is getting worse day by day. Product supply by major marketers is not sustainable. Major marketers want the debts owed then paid and are not ready to stake more money on importation of petrol,” he said.
The NNPC, in its statement, quoted the Managing Director of the PPMC, Haruna Momoh, as saying that 21 additional vessels laden with petroleum products were offshore Lagos waiting to berth.
He said the corporation had made adequate arrangement to ensure energy sufficiency in the country and reassured motorists that the noticeable queues at filling stations would thin out in the days ahead.
Momoh noted that the NNPC had 21 days sufficiency of Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel, and 18 days sufficiency of Dual Purpose Kerosene, also known as kerosene.
He announced that as part of efforts to ensure petroleum products’ sufficiency and distribution, the NNPC had embarked on aggressive reception depot rehabilitation, adding, “As of today, 18 depots out of the 23 depots have been fully recovered with the exception of Makurdi, Yola and Maiduguri due to the activities of pipeline vandals.”
The PPMC boss said the corporation suffered petroleum product losses worth N40.8bn through pipeline vandalism in 2014, stressing that no business could survive such and still remained a going concern.
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