FUEL SCARCITY LOOMS

•    Ex-Depot Price Shoots-up

There are strong indications that the country may soon experience another round of scarcity as the depot price of petroleum products have increased at the loading points in Lagos following alleged refusal of some aggrieved marketers and tank farm owners to import.
 Sources at the tank farms in Lagos have also confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that the refusal of marketers to import petroleum products is the fallout of the ongoing probe of the fuel subsidy allocation by the House of Representatives whose investigations have indicted some top players in the market.
Our investigations at the tank farms in Lagos last week revealed that some of the major importers of petroleum  product have refused to bring in vessels and that the  stock at the various reservoirs are gradually running out.
Findings last week revealed that the price of the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol has shot up from N88 to N93 per litre. That of Automated Gas Oil (AGO) generally known as diesel has also shot up from N130 to N140, while the Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) which is formerly N120 sold for N130 ex-depot last week.
Confirming the development to our correspondent, the chairman of the Technical Committee of Stakeholders operating at the Ibafon-Ibru tank farms, Mr. Geoffrey Okorie disclosed that marketers are no longer bringing in petroleum products and that what is currently in circulation are the ones that they already have in stock.
He confirmed that some of the depot owners have increased the price of the product in other to maximize profit.
Okorie pointed out that even though there was no meeting or any agreement by marketers on the decision to shun importation, they are simply aggrieved about the refusal of the government to pay them their petroleum subsidy funds.
He attributed the development to the ongoing probe of some of the marketers over the petroleum subsidy payment. “There was no meeting among marketers not to import, you cannot owe me and be accusing me of a bridge and yet you want me to import, there is no way we can keep two things half way, we must sort out one before we go into the other”, he argued.
“The price of petrol has appreciated, this is not peculiar to PMS alone but also AGO, the truth of the matter is that government on their own are not being truthful to themselves, it is good that government is probing subsidy funds, but these marketers have also imported with their money and what is supposed to be paid to them is not being paid, if government really wants to probe the subsidy fund allocation, then they should flood everywhere with PMS”.
Okorie advised that the NNPC should take over the importation of petroleum products into the country and allocate it to the various marketers for distribution, according to him, this is the only time that government will be able to control the price.
He also suggested that a monitoring team should be set up to ensure that the products are escorted into the various tanks and to also control the pricing.
“The aim of every businessman is to make profit and if this is not forth coming then there is no business, these marketers borrow money from the bank to import, they will pay back with interest, but here, whenever it is time to collect their PSF government is not forthcoming”
“If we don’t have an understanding between the marketers and the government, definitely we are going to experience some fuel scarcity” Okorie warned.
Also speaking with our correspondent on the imminent scarcity, another source (names withheld) said that marketers have been importing product with their money but now that they are under probe they have no option than to hold the government to ransom.
“Instead of probing them, the government should go into a form of participation using the money they have taken to trade with them and share the profit, they are forming a cartel now in order to hold government to ransom by not importing and this has shot the price up because demand and supply will interface”