The Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) last week resumed distribution of petrol into different pars of the country; a process which had hitherto been hampered by logistics of getting the vessels across.
The distribution exercise is reportedly being carried out in collaboration with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN). Our correspondent confirmed that for now, only three depots are being used to distribute the products in Lagos state. They are: Capital oil and gas, Folawiyo energy limited and African Petroleum limited.
Shipping Position Weekly gathered that a special PPMC sales department has also been set up at each of these tank farms in order to be able to hasten the loading process as well as to coordinate the trucks coming in to lift the product.
According to a document obtained by our correspondent from PPMC sales department at Capital Oil depot in Lagos, full fledged distribution of petrol commenced at the depot last week Tuesday at 60Naira per litre and according to the department, it is going to be a continuous process until the scarcity is finally arrested.
Consequently, trucks have been turning up in large numbers and loading, they are also a common sight queuing up at the access leading to the depots. According to the document, the trucks are coming into Lagos from all over the states and not less than 852 trucks with about 29million litres successfully loaded from the depots last week.
A source close to IPMAN, who spoke to our correspondent however said that for the petrol to circulate properly there is still need for building of more jetties, saying that “the market may appear dull, but the fuel is available, but for it to go round we need more jetties, once you place an order for this product it takes between 30 to 40 days for it to land here because of logistics problems”
According to him, “unless we improve on the quality and quantity of the jetties in this country we will continue to have scarcity situations, we might not also be able to bridge the gap so quickly because the infrastructure of our petroleum industry in this country was not designed for importation, what we have is actually for internal production and exportation, now we have a situation at hand and we are depending on importation”.
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