Petrol Scarcity: Supply Chain Distrupted By Heavy Rain -MEMAN

Following the emergence of queues at the petrol stations in Lagos and other states in the country, Executive Secretary of the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria, MEMAN, Clement Isong, has said the scarcity of petrol was caused by heavy rainfall.

According to him, the supply chain was disrupted for a few days last week following the heavy rain noting petrol cannot be loaded during rainstorms and lightning.

“The roads were flooded and trucks could either not move or were moving slowly. So, we lost two or three days of loading activities and it’s the backflow of this that has led to the queues. But the queues will disappear because petrol is very much available, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

However, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, accused private depot owners of being responsible for petrol scarcity in major cities.

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IPMAN National President, Abubakar Maigandi, said: “The private depots have petroleum products but selling at N715 per liter ex-depot price. The queues you are seeing are the artificial creation of depot owners, but we cannot allow them to keep doing things like this.”

“In Lagos, NNPCL sells petrol at N568 per litre so our members cannot buy at N715 and discharge in Lagos, and that is why there are queues in Lagos.

But in other places where our members can still add their margin even when they buy at N715 per liter from the private depots, there are no queues.

“You know that IPMAN controls over 80 percent of petrol filling stations in the country, so once IPMAN is unable to sell petrol, there will be scarcity in the country.”