One week after the nationwide strike that was embarked upon by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was called- off, activities at the downstream sector of the oil and gas has once again gathered momentum, especially as it concerns the loading of the all-essential Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
One week after the nationwide strike that was embarked upon by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was called- off, activities at the downstream sector of the oil and gas has once again gathered momentum, especially as it concerns the loading of the all-essential Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
Shipping Position Daily investigations last week show that many of the depots in Lagos have resumed loading of petrol which they hitherto had been unsure of how to fix the ex-depot price for it, due to the government's recent declaration N97 per liter price benchmark.
Depots have started selling the products for between N89 per liter to N90 per liter.
Also, according to the loading manifest obtained by our correspondent at some of the tank farms located around the Kirikiri axis of Apapa Lagos, Bovas Oil has been loading 30 trucks per day, Techno oil has been doing about 100 trucks daily, while Swift oil has been loading 56 trucks daily since the resumption.
Apart from this, the importation of the PMS has also improved.
According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by Shipping Position Daily, about 13 vessels made it to the jetties with fuel last week while another batch of 10 has been listed to be awaiting berthing formalities.
The spokesman of NIPCO Plc; one of the biggest importer of fuel in Nigeria, Mr. Taofeek Lawal, was reported to have also confirmed that loading of products have commenced at the company’s depot since Tuesday last week.
“The PPPRA officials came to measure the quantity of petrol in the tank on Tuesday and loading has resumed at our depot,” he said.
With the new pump price of N97 per litre, the Federal Government is still paying N44 as subsidy on every litre of petrol, but the new price has cut the subsidy expenditure by 42 per cent.
The PPPRA had also last week asked the marketers to honor their supply schedule for the fourth quarter of last year.
It was gathered that it would not be difficult for the importers under the new subsidy regime to bring in petrol because a lot of traders were waiting to sell petrol to would be buyers offshore Nigeria.
Reuters had reported that a petrol glut was building offshore Nigeria with around 30 vessels waiting to offload their cargoes.
According to the newswire, the product glut when calculated would have a market value of under $900m.
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