Oil marketers threaten strike, 28 depots dry up

Oil marketers on Monday threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over the alleged illegal shutdown of the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company’s depot in Apapa, Lagos by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.

The Chairman, Concerned Marketers, Mr. Abidemi Agunbiade, who spoke with journalists in Lagos, said the current fuel scarcity in the country might be aggravated by the continuous shutdown of the NIPCO’s depot, which pumps 30 per cent of the daily national demand.

Agunbiade said the shutdown of the plant, which entered the ninth day on Monday, had affected over 1,000 marketers, who had paid to load petrol, but were now defaulting on their obligations to the banks which they borrowed from.

According to him, the discharge of over 45 million litres of petrol brought into the country into the NIPCO depot is being stalled due to the shutdown.

He said, “About four vessels are on the high sea, including that of the NNPC, which they are paying demurrage of between $15,000 and $20,000 on daily basis due the shutdown of NIPCO by the leadership of NUPENG.

“Our trucks laden with petroleum products have been stuck in the company in the last nine days, which is aggravating the scarcity in most stations across the country.”

As a result of the development, our correspondent gathered that about 80 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit in NIPCO’s storage facilities could not be discharged to marketers, while about 500 tankers were waiting to load the product for onward distribution to retail outlets.

Meanwhile, indications have emerged that 28 out of the 33 fuel depots in Lagos have no PMS in stock as of Monday, thus aggravating the fuel scarcity situation currently rocking the nation.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that depots such as Acorn, Aquatine, D Jones, Euroafric, Fatgbems, Global Fleet, Hensmor, Honeywell, SPG, Index, Lister, Obat, and Techno had no drop of petrol in stock on Monday.

Others without the product are Zenon Heyden, Eterna Oil, Bovas, Everest, and T-Time.

Though the Ascon, Ibakem, Ibafo, Integrated, Rahamaniya, Heyden, Switf, FDWP, Gulf Treasure and SPOG depots had kerosene and diesel, investigations, revealed that they had no petrol.

The Ibakem, Ibafo and Integrated depots loaded a litre of diesel at N136.50, N137 and N136, respectively on Monday, while Rahamaniya and Heyden loaded kerosene at N90 per litre. Swift loaded the product at N89.50; while FWDP and Gulf Treasure both loaded diesel at N137 per litre. SPOG loaded kerosene and diesel at N90 and N137, respectively.

“None of them had a drop of petrol,” said a source who did not want to be named.

Already, fuel depots that have products have increased the ex-depot price of petrol from N87.66k per litre to about N100.

It was learnt that Capital Oil and Folawiyo depots, which were selling PMS on behalf of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, sold to marketers with draft tickets from the PPMC at the official ex-depot price of N87.66k. However, the marketers sold the product to other third party marketers at N101 per litre.

The Managing Director, PPMC, Mr. Haruna Momoh, had said on Sunday, “The NNPC ex-depot price for the PMS is N87.66k. This price is uniform in all the NNPC depots nationwide. Our ex-depot price must not be confused with the price at which unscrupulous elements or marketers sell PMS at the tarmac outside of our depot after buying from the NNPC at the official price.”

Marketers, who spoke with our correspondent under conditions of anonymity, said though the PPMC had never sold PMS above the official ex-depot price of N87.66k, they, confirmed that third-party marketers were paying N110 for a litre of PMS at its depots.

Investigation also revealed that Sahara and Aiteo depots were on Monday loading a litre of PMS at N99.50 each.

Though NIPCO remained shut on Monday, records showed that it was selling PMS at an ex-depot price of N95.

While supply has been unable to meet the 35 million litre average national demand, experts express worry that consumers are already buying PMS above the official pump price of N97.

The Chairman, NUPENG, Western Zone, Mr. Tokunbo Korodo, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, confirmed that the pump price of petrol had increased because the product was not being made available to the marketers.

He said, “Some of the marketers are now patronising black marketers who sell above the pump price.

“The few ones selling at the pump price have seriously adjusted their pumps by selling lesser quantity that does not correspond to the money the masses are paying, just to avoid closure of their stations by the DPR.”

Though the Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, had told our correspondent that no major oil marketers’ filling station was selling PMS above the pump price, investigations by our correspondent revealed that a litre of fuel was sold at N100 per litre in retails outlets owned by Forte Oil, Conoil, Mobil, Oando, MRS and Total in Lagos as of Monday.