Scarcity of petrol, not our fault, says oil marketers
The marketers of petroleum products under the aegis of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) have denied their involvement in the cause of the scarcity and inflation of petroleum products.
The body has blamed the scarcity and inflation of the petroleum products on market forces and challenges of logistics which are beyond their power.
The National President of the association, Mr Benneth Koriez made this revelation while addressing newsmen in Abuja on Monday.
He revealed that marketers of oil were faced with the challenges of dollar scarcity and an increase in vessel rental, which has hit $85,000 daily.
He said the increase in the price of petroleum products will soon come back to normalty.
He added that the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery would soon be achieved to ensure local refining which would reduce prices of petroleum products.
“You need diesel to power the tankers that load the petrol at the depots. The vessels (ship) also need diesel to function. You need diesel to run the depots and diesel to run the filling stations’ generators. You see it?”, he said.
“So, when people wonder why we are selling products higher, these are the reasons. Before now, we refined in-country. Now, it’s through NNPCL which is now a private sector entity. All products are sourced outside.
The NOGASA president also added: “It costs $85,000 per day to rent vessels to bring in products. Add that to the cost of running the depots and filling stations. We are not happy selling at that price but we have no choice. We borrow money from the banks to run this business at 30% interest rate. Another issue is bad roads. It’s a major challenge. From PHC to Abuja, no one kilometre without deep pothole. Have you asked now much oil marketers are losing. Many tankers lose products as they fall? Who will pay? Insurance can’t do much here. So, fix roads and dollar issue. We need dollars to remain afloat. NNPC is also suffering. You can’t import products at N600 and sell at N180. It’s tough. We have assurance that NNPC Refinery will start working between now and next month ending. Prices will go down by then. It’ll eliminate cost of cargo rental and loading. Landing cost is not less than N280/litre.”
