Marketers hoard petroleum products despite N413bn subsidy payment

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Findings by our correspondent show that marketers of petroleum products are hoarding stock despite Federal Government’s approval of N413bn as payment for subsidy arrears to them.

The marketers, it was learnt, doubted the government’s move, suspecting it was a ploy to further make them continue to supply products to the Nigerian market without getting the subsidy payments on the products.

Oil marketers, for close to a year, had continued to import petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (otherwise called petrol) without getting refunds from government in terms of the subsidy on the products.

Despite the 365 million-litre figure quoted by the Department of Petroleum Resources as the current stock level of Premium Motor Spirit in depots nationwide as at Wednesday, marketers at Apapa have continued to deny tanker drivers access to their premises under the guise that they (marketers) have very limited products.

Although a majority of marketers had resorted to hoarding products, a visit to the depots at Apapa showed that the few marketers that opened their depots for product loading, were discharging below capacity.

The DPR, on Thursday subsequently shut down three depots at Apapa. The depots were: Total, Dee Jones and Eterna Oil.

The operators of two other depots visited by the DPR – Integrated Oil and Ascon Petroleum, were summoned to the regulator’s office for questioning after a cross examination of the loading schedules by officials of the DPR.

For Dee Jones, the DPR said the company had over 19 million litres of PMS in stock, but was carrying out inadequate loading.

The regulator also said that Total and Eterna had 13.6 million and 13 million litres of PMS at their depots respectively, but were not allowing loading of the products.

The DPR also expressed worry over the poor loading activities at Integrated Oil and Ascon depots despite the availability of 10.2 million and 8 million litres of PMS at their depots.

But the management of Integrated Oil attributed the situation at its depots to the massive traffic gridlock in the area, saying it has become difficult for trucks to access its depot owing to large number of waiting tankers on the access road.

But the Director, DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, in an interview, said there was no need for panic buying of PMS as the country had enough product that would last for weeks based on the records of the department.

He said the Lagos storage area had over 200 million litres of petrol available for the market.

He said, “Hoarders of petroleum products, if caught, risk having their depots shut down for a minimum of two months with an option of N2m fine.

“We have summoned the marketers to come and give us reasons why they are refusing to load or are giving out products in trickles. For us, they do not have any reason to do so.”

In a bid to avert the scarcity of PMS, the Federal Government, on Wednesday, approved the immediate payment of N413bn to oil marketers as outstanding payment for subsidy claims.

This development was confirmed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in a statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe.

The corporation had stated, “It is our belief that with the outstanding payment due to oil marketers now assured, the marketers and other downstream players will join hands with the NNPC to guarantee that the nation remains wet with petroleum products all year round.”

Source: Punch