By Adewale Sanyaolu
There are strong indications that the volume of fuel imports has dropped drastically as deports operators’ battle shortage of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.
The development has forced many filling stations to shut down operations while a few with products had pockets of queues.
Some industry sources in Apapa who spoke to Daily Sun in separate interviews said there has been a sharp drop in the number of vessels arriving the country.
They said since all marketers now rely on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) for imported petrol, they will all have to be on the queue for vessels to arrive.
‘‘I can tell you authoritatively that since Monday we have not loaded up to 50 trucks. It got so bad today, that we couldn’t load up to three trucks, a source in one of the leading downstream company told Daily Sun.
As at yesterday, only ASPM terminal and MOJ received vessels. Those vessels cannot start discharging products until tomorrow (today) because of regulatory bureaucratic bottlenecks often associated with the process.”
Most of the filling stations within Ogba, Alausa and Alapere had queues of motorists in search of the product.
The same scenario was observed at the Total filling station on Mobolaji Bank Anthony way in Ikeja and a couple of others on Ikorodu road.
About seven marketers which had imported petrol about a month ago have all suspended further import of the product due to distortions in the foreign exchange market occasioned by the return of subsidy.
Many marketers complained that it was no longer profitable to import petrol under the current circumstance of a subsidy regime.
Though, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, had recently told State House Correspondents after an audience with the President at the Aso Rock Villa that fuel subsidy had not been reinstated.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market, and we understand why the marketers are unable to import. We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy,” he stated.
But, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria(PENGASSAN) recently confirmed that the country was still paying subsidy under the current administration.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today recently, Festus Osifo, National President of PENGASSAN, said due to the cost of crude oil in the international market and the exchange rate, the government still pays subsidies on petrol.
“They [government] are paying subsidy today. In reality today, there is subsidy because as of when the earlier price was determined, the price of crude in the international market was somewhere around $80 per barrel.
But today, it has moved to about $93/94 per barrel for Brent crude. So, because it has moved, then the price [of petroleum] also needed to move,” he said.
He said before the government can stop subsidising petroleum, two things must happen.
“The only reason the price will not move is when you are able to manage your exchange rate effectively and you are able to pump in supply and bring down the exchange rate.