Scarcity: Federal Govt Raises Petrol Supply, Evacuation To 502.21m Litres

Total premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, evacuation from various depots across the country rose to 502.21 million litres for the one week period between February 4 and 10, 2023 LEADERSHIP checks have shown.

The data released by the  the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) yesterday, indicated that total PMS  evacuation increased by 51.29 million litres or 11.37 per cent over the 450.92 million litres evacuated the previous week.

The data titled ‘Weekly National PMS Evacuation and Dispatch’ report posted on the NMDPRA and Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited official Twitter accounts yesterday, also showed that an average of 71.74 million litres  of petrol was evacuated on a daily basis, compared 64.42 million litres the previous week, while year to date (YTD) daily average

was 64.93 million litres.

The Authority said that 87 per cent of all evacuation took place at the top 30 loading depots, with minimum evacuation of five million litres while other loading depot evacuated 13 per cent of total volume.

According to the report, Pinnacle depot had the highest load-out at 71.53 million liters, NIPCO had 29.53 million liters, Aiteo has 28.71 million litres; Matrix had 19.79 million litres; TSL recorded 19.69 million litres while

MRS Limited had  19.09 million liters.

Meanwhile, Masters had 22.66 million liters, NIPCO had 22.45 million liters, Bluefin had 20.08 million liters. 26 other depots recorded between 5 to 16 million liters each. Also, 28 other load-out depots recorded less than five million liters each.

Fuel Dispatch for some states: According to the report, 2,267 fuel trucks dispatched fuel to Lagos state during the period highlighted. 707 fuel trucks were dispatched to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 629 fuel trucks were dispatched to Oyo state on the higher end of the table.

Meanwhile,  on the lower end, 70 fuel trucks were dispatched to Enugu state, 59 fuel trucks were sent to Jigawa, 49 fuel trucks were sent to Bayelsa state, 48 fuel trucks were sent to Zamfara state and 25fuel trucks were sent to Ebonyi state.

Last week, the fuel scarcity crisis led to protests in some parts of Edo state as Nigerians were frustrated by the unavailability of fuel as well as the high costs that rose up to N500 per liter in some filling stations across the country.

Kyari had also promised that the challenges would soon be over. He said that in the sense of recovering costs, market players tend to escalate arbitrage to unreasonable levels.

However, the recent meeting held with stakeholders across the value chain yielded some fruits as all stakeholders are now willing to work together to ensure that normalcy is restored as regards fuel purchases. He said there is an understanding that some of these depots where challenges occur are tackled and logistics costs are handled effectively.

By Friday when the minister of state, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, inspected some stations in the federal capital territory, there was considerable improvement in the supply of fuel in most filling stations.

“A lot of things have been done. All hands have been on deck, the NNPC Limited, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), and stakeholders in the supply chain have come together to ensure that the problem is resolved.

“This is not the time for us to apportion  blames as  the most important thing is that the problem has been resolved and you can see now the queues are no longer there, at least in the FCT we are going around to ensure they have  disappeared,” he said

On marketers who are selling above approved price, especially in other states, he said it was a regulatory issue and within the purview of the NMDPRA  to sanction those marketers.

Sylva added that the authority would tackle the issue.

Speaking on the conflicting ex-depot price, he described it as commercial details under the purview of the NNPC Ltd., saying he would ensure that  all those conflicting problems were resolved.

The minister noted that the importation of the petroleum product is a problem because a lot of people cannot access the foreign exchange.

“The fuel situation also has nothing to do with politics.  Anything,  including natural disasters like flood can trigger the fuel distribution hindrance because they are natural factors we are not in control of.

“A lot of the problems that caused fuel scarcity and queues are not within our control there are also all kinds of people who are ready to take advantage of situations and caused problems by seeking for opportunity to make money, hoard and smuggle the product.

“These require intervention of the security agencies and the recent engagement with them definitely helped,” he said.