The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has attributed the recent fuel queues in several states to actions by private depot owners, describing the situation as an “artificial scarcity.”
IPMAN National President Abubakar Maigandi asserted that IPMAN members have been consistently loading fuel from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) depots and distributing it to their outlets.
He said despite this, queues have emerged due to high ex-depot prices set by private depot owners, which now stand at N715 per litre.
“The private depots have petroleum products but are selling at N715 per liter ex-depot price. The queues you are seeing are the artificial creation of depot owners,” Maigandi told The Nation.
He stated that NNPCL should supply IPMAN directly to prevent such occurrences in the future.
According to him, while NNPCL sells petrol at N568 per litre in Lagos, private depots’ higher prices have created supply issues.
“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 litre from the private depots, there are no queues,” he explained.
He pointed out that IPMAN controls over 80 per cent of petrol filling stations in the country, stressing that any disruptions in their supply directly impact national availability.
Maigandi also blamed pipeline vandalism for NNPCL’s insufficient product supply, adding that IPMAN has partnered with NNPCL to safeguard the pipelines.
On his part, Executive Secretary of the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, said recent heavy rains and storms caused temporary disruptors of logistics at depots, which led to the queues.
“The supply chain was disrupted for a few days last week following the heavy rain. Petrol cannot be loaded during rainstorms and lightning. The roads were flooded and trucks could either not move or were moving slowly,” Isong said.
