Stock Of Petrol Sufficient For 35 Days – PPPRA
Many petrol stations in Lagos and Abuja were closed on Sunday morning and long queues of vehicles waiting to buy petrol were observed in few filling stations that opened for business.
It was gathered that most filling stations were closed on Sunday with only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stations dispensing the product on at N162/litre while a few other independent marketers selling petrol at N163/litre.
It was learnt the current scarcity is as a result of hoarding by independent oil marketers who are expecting fresh fuel price increase with crude oil price at $67/barrel at the international market.
Since the international price of crude oil rose above $60 per barrel in the past one month, marketers have expected an increase in pump price of petrol in view of the deregulation of the sector.
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), however, hinged the scarcity on the NNPC and private depots gradually running out of stock.
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Sources at IPMAN said petrol tanker drivers now wait longer than necessary to load products even after making payments.
They denied allegations of hoarding, saying the product was scarce in reality.
Private oil marketers are currently selling petrol for between N165 to N168 per litre instead of N158 per litre contained in the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) template.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has declared that Nigeria currently has about 35 days sufficiency of petrol as of Friday, February 26, 2021.
This is despite reports of supply shortage in some states and alleged hoarding of the product by filling stations.
The PPPRA daily report obtained by BizWatch Nigeria showed that the average petrol land stock as of Friday stood at 1.14 billion litres while marine stock was 860.56 million litres with the total stock standing at 1.999 billion litres.
According to the daily report, land-based stock sufficiency is 20.34 days, marine days sufficiency is 15.37 days, making a total of 35.71 days sufficiency.
Meanwhile, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has warned fuel depot owners against hoarding petroleum products in their facilities, saying it would sanction erring operators.
The Director, DPR, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, said the warning was necessitated by reports received by the agency on the activities of some depot owners who had created artificial scarcity by hoarding products in some parts of the country.
According to him, the depot owners’ nefarious activities are causing Nigerians untold hardships.
