Eid-el-Kabir: Petrol Marketers urge NNPC to pump fuel to Ejigbo Depo

NNPC Tanker

Petroleum Marketers have appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to make fuel available at Ejigbo Depot in Lagos to avert looming fuel scarcity during the forthcoming Eid-el-Kabir festival.

Alhaji Ayo Alanamu, Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ejigbo Depot Chapter, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

This appeal has become necessary because for the last three weeks, precisely since July 20, there was no loading of petroleum at Ejigbo depot.

We have been out of supply since July 20 which is causing serious concern to us marketers. It is also sending wrong signals of looking at fuel scarcity as a result of the non-availability of the product at the depot.

I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but if urgent action is not taken by the NNPC to restore pumping to the depot, it could lead to serious scarcity during the forthcoming Eid-el-Kabir Festival.

According to the IPMAN chairman, the situation is posing a serious challenge to marketers from the southwest and northern parts of the country.

Alanamu said the scarcity of petrol at NNPC depots in states had forced marketers to buy the product from private depots which sold above the ex-depot price of #133.28.

He said that marketers who above pump price did so because of the high price the product was obtained at the private depots.

He said: It is purely an issue of economic reality and the interplay of demand and supply that is why the price is never steady; sales price changes in line with cost price."

He also points out the pipeline vandalism has not been well taken care of as its resurgence becomes more daring, thereby threatening another total closure of the depot.

'Definitely, this will have serious consequences on the supply of petroleum to the depot." he claimed.

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