The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that issues that led to the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), widely called petrol, would take another two weeks to be fully resolved.
IPMAN Public Relations Officer, Chinedu Ukadike, said this in an interview on fuel scarcity with newsmen, adding that the product was not available in-country.
He blamed the acute shortage (scarcity) in supply of importation bottlenecks and the slow pace of marketers’ license renewal by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
According to him, only 1,050 marketers out of 15,000 have had their licences renewed by the NMDPRA.
In his words, “The situation is that there is no product. Once there is lack of supply or inadequate supply, what you will see is scarcity, and queues will emerge at filling stations.
“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.
“Once there is a breach in the international supply chain, it will have an impact on domestic supply because we depend on imports. I also have heard from good authorities that most of the refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance. So sourcing petroleum products has become a bit difficult.
“NNPC Group CEO has assured us 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 days supply sufficiency is distrusted, it takes two to three months to restore it. We expect that by next week or so, NNPC should be able to restore supply, and with another week, normalcy should return,” he said.
Speaking on the challenges faced by marketers in renewing their licenses, he said: “NNPC 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 some time now. Because of this, we have not been able to request new products.
“Marketers are facing hostile environment. NNPC 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 marketers licenses who have completed their processes, and also reduce the bottlenecks around license renewals,” he added.
