OIL marketers, yesterday, said they were working toward ending petrol shortage in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the nation.
The shortage of the product had hit most parts of the nation, compelling the Department of State Services, DSS and House of Representatives to issue matching orders to the marketers.
Speaking with Vanguard, yesterday, Operations Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Mr. Mike Osatuyi, said they were committed to lifting and selling the product to eliminate shortage.
He said: “The Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Limited, has expressed commitment to ensuring that all marketers that paid get supplied as quickly as possible at the official rate of N148 per litre.
“Consequently, with improved supply, our members have also intensified efforts toward increased distribution at their outlets, a development that would culminate in ending the shortage.”
Similarly, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, in a statement by its chairman, Mr. Olumide Adeosun, yesterday, promised to boost supplies to retail sites and return to normalcy as soon as possible, adding: “We envisage a rise in demand during the yuletide season and are prepared to work round the clock to keep our stations running.”
He also called for massive investment into the midstream and downstream sectors, saying, “Imported products must compete with locally refined products to find a meeting point between the need for local refining and competitively low but cost recovered prices for Nigerians for sustainability.
“The dialogue with the Nigerian people needs to begin to identify, negotiate and agree these areas and begin implementation to save the downstream industry, which has been in degradation freefall due to a lack of investment to maintain, renew and grow assets and facilities such as refineries, pipelines, depots, trucks, and modern filling stations. These lack of investments contribute in no small measure to fuel distribution inefficiencies and high costs. Neither the new refineries nor the refurbished refineries will survive with the refining margins at current pump prices.
“The exploration, production, refining of crude oil and the distribution of refined products is an international business with ebbs and flows and has specific models, guidelines, rules, and norms designed to protect and sustain consumers of this type of energy and populations impacted by its supply chain. The government and the industry in Nigeria must demonstrably apply these accepted health, safety, environmental protection, and quality norms to be seen to care for its local populations. To cut corners would be irresponsible, unaccountable, and unsustainable.”