Oil marketers, NNPC move to end fuel scarcity

Oil marketers under the aegis of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) said they are working with the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to improve the distribution of petrol across the country.

The current move by MOMAN and NNPC is coming against the backdrop of the current fuel scarcity experienced in Lagos and some other major cities across the country.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of MOMAN, Clement Isong, the association had been holding a daily logistic emergency meeting with the downstream management of NNPCL on how to improve the supply of petrol.

He added that the collaboration will boost the distribution of petroleum products across the country.

“We are doing depot-to-depot check-in and check-out to enhance efficiency, also having logistic supply meetings with NNPCL. There is also collaboration among our members to cushion supply to various MOMAN’s stations.

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“We arranged it in a way that any MOMAN member who does not have product can pick from fellow members’ depot to minimize supply gaps.’’

The MOMAN boss said that members of the association would be working late and during the weekend to bridge product supply gaps and push out more products than it normally did.

He added that the scarcity was a result of delays experienced at the point of receiving products from offshore to onshore at the port.

Isong, however, said the logistics challenge had been resolved and members were currently trucking out products.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the oil marketers and petroleum depot operators, under the aegis of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), have called for quick intervention by the Federal Government.

The DAPPMAN Chairman, Mrs. Winifred Akpani, urged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to comply with the Federal Government’s directive to end payment of port charges in dollars for petroleum products brought into the country.

Akpani maintained that accessing forex through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) window would enhance their capacity, facilitate a seamless supply of petrol, and birth a regime of sustainability in terms of storage, distribution, and supply across the nation.

She added that the burden of sourcing forex through the parallel market for transactions domiciled in Nigeria had left petroleum marketers in a very bad situation.