Fuel Scarcity: Filling Station Owners Call For Distribution Network Overhaul

Filling station owners under the aegis of Association of Mega Filling Station Owners of Nigeria (AMFSON), has called for a strategic overhauling of the distribution network of petroleum products across the country.

AMFSON said that only such a process will stem the incessant scarcity of petroleum products across the country.

AMFSON president,  Davidson N. Ukatta, in a statement said the overhaul should as a matter of urgency, include the reduction of dependency on private petroleum farm tanks for the storage of imported products to fuel depot’s owned and managed by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Ukatta noted that the over dependence on private tanks has over the years proved not to be very effective in product distribution across the country.

He regretted that minor natural disasters end up disrupting logistics for product distribution, stressing that the government should as a matter of urgency look into the need to revive NNPC fuel depots across the country.

Ukatta further averred that pumping fuel into these abandoned depots will ensure that supplies are replenished within short periods unlike the present situation whereby supplies take longer time as products come all the way from Lagos.

“Government should ensure that each geopolitical zone has a functional fuel depot from where filling stations from the zone will restock their supplies rather than waiting for supplies from Lagos,” the group stated.

The AMFSON president reiterated that his association remains the missing link in the sustainable  and efficient distribution of petroleum products across the country.

“AMFSON remains the most reliable platform for the supply and distribution of petroleum products as our members are located in all nooks and crannies of the country”. He added.

Ukatta, therefore, called for stronger partnership between AMFSON and other critical stakeholders in the downstream sector in order to save the public from the dysfunctionality caused by perennial fuel Scarcity to the national economy.