Fuel Scarcity to Last 2 More Weeks-IPMAN

The Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has stated that ongoing scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, in some parts of the country will not only spread to more states but will also be around in the next fortnight.

IPMAN made the statement on Sunday through its Public Relations Officer, Chinedu Ukadike.

The group noted that the cause of the scarcity is due mainly to the fact that petrol has become too difficult to source internationally because most refineries in Europe are undergoing Turn-Around Maintenance, TAM. According to Ukadike once there is a breach in the supply chain as it is with the current situation, it will take two weeks to restore normalcy. 

“Once there is a breach in the international supply chains, it will have an impact on domestic supply because we depend on imports. I also have it on good authority that most of the refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance. So sourcing petroleum products has become difficult.

“The situation is that there is no product. Once there is a lack of supply or inadequate supply, what you will see is scarcity and queues will emerge at filling stations,” he explained.

Ukadike, who also blamed the shortfall in supply to importation bottlenecks, pointed out that the difficulty in obtaining the product is equally traceable to marketers’ slow renewal pace by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDRA. According to him, NMDPRA has registered only about 1,050 of 15,000.

“NNPCL has said the marketers who have not been able to renew their licenses will not be allowed to remain on their portal which has been shut for sometime now. Because of this, we have not been able to request new products.

“At this nascent period of deregulation, you will discover that this leads to scarcity, even when the product arrives. As it is now, even by their data, out of 15,000 marketers that are on the portal with licenses, only 1,050 renewed their licenses.

“The requirements for renewal is so much. Marketers are facing a hostile environment . NNPCL placed a deadline of April 15, 2024 for marketers to renew their licenses.

"We are therefore appealing to NNPC to extend this deadline and also to NMDPRA to hasten the release of license to marketers who have completed their processes and also reduce bottlenecks around license renewals.”

Ukadike, who referred to the assurances given by the CEO, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, noted that IPMAN expects the nation’s sole supplier to be able to live by its words so that in a week or two, supply will be restored.

“On the part of NNPCL, which is the sole supplier of petroleum products in Nigeria, they have attributed the challenge to logistics and vessel problems.

"NNPCL Group CEO has assured that there will be improvement in the supply chain because their vessels are arriving. Once that is done, normalcy will return. This is because once the 30-day supply sufficiency is disrupted, it takes two weeks to restore it.

"We expect that by next week or so, NNPCL should be able to restore supply and with another week, normalcy should return,” he said.