NO fewer than four of the petroleum depots belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the South West are presently out of operations, thereby posing threats to smooth distribution of products across the country.
The NNPC has about 22 depots across the country but the recent development would have limited the scope and engender longer distance haulage of products.
Concerned petroleum marketers, under the aegis of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), are however worried that the comatose state of the depots, which constitute hindrance to smooth lifting of products to different geo-political zones of the country.
The affected depots in the South West, according to the marketers, include Ejigbo in Lagos; Ibadan; Ilorin; and Ore depots, leaving only Mosinmi to distribute products imported through Lagos axis.
This may not be unconnected with some shortages experienced in the fuel supply value chain recently, as marketers largely depend on products from the Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC), an arm of the NNPC.
An IPMAN official, Kunle Bamgboye, who listed this among the constraints to fuel lifting in a meeting with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), stressed that the marketers now rely only on NNPC and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), since the beginning of the subsidy brouhaha.
Bamgboye however alleged that the DAPPMA members sell products above official ex-depot price, which forced them to also sell above pump price at filling stations.
“Because we buy at higher than the normal price, we have to sell above pump price so that we can make profit. We are into marketing business, so we must make profit from our dealings,” he said.
As for the NNPC, he said over the years, supply from NNPC has never been enough as marketers could only get one truck in a month, which could not obviously satisfy the market needs.
Petroleum products which are either imported or refined locally are received by PPMC through import jetties or refinery depots and distributed through pipelines to depots strategically located all over the country from where petroleum tankers lift the products to designated retail outlets.
The Spokesperson, PPMC, Nasir Imodagbe, linked the situation to pipeline vandalism which has bedevilled it operations in recent times.
Imodagbe, who refuted the allegation, said the company always give prompt priority to any vandalism line and ensure that it was restored immediately.
Specifically, he said there was no depot that is out of operations at the moment, adding that products are evenly distributed throughout the depots to salvage the scarcity situation.
When The Guardian visited Ejigbo depot in Lagos, the depot was not supplying products, while tankers were seeing parked in and out of the premises, but tanker drivers said products are loaded occassionally.
Source: