The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has enjoined the Federal Government (FG) to consider compensating its members that have a lot of money as fuel scarcity continues in the country.
In an interview cited by BizWatch Nigeria, Public Relations Officer (PRO), IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Ukadike said the challenges experienced by the marketers at the downstream oil and gas sector are enormous since the discovery of the over 100 million contaminated petrol, adding that the acute shortage of fuel may last for another two weeks.
His words: “Nothing much has changed in the last few days, the issue is that up till now we have not seen the intervention of the NNPC based on evacuating these products (bad fuel) from some of our stations. Some marketers are trying to see if they can get new products and blend them to see if they can move.
“Marketers’ capitals have been tied down and the bad product is also occupying their storage tank and that is why you are seeing some skeletal services. Some also have their tanks quarantined, so it is not easy.
“We have been expecting products in the inland depots like the Port Harcourt Refinery depot but up till now, no product has been received. These things happen. Once there is a break in the supply chain it will take some time to fix.
“Forget what people are saying it will take one-two to three weeks to fill in the gaps. It is talking about evacuating and replacing, it is not just about the shortage, it is also about evacuating and replacing.”
Noting that inland depot has received clean petrol that would boost supplies to filling stations across the country, Ukadike observed that many motorists have engaged in racketeering where they “fill up their tanks, go to sell to black marketers and return to the queues. I want to advise our people to stop patronizing black marketers, this will help also in solving the problem”, he added.
