Scarcity of petroleum products will continue to be an issue in Nigeria until local refining capacity is improved, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, said on Thursday.
Gillis-Harry made the disclosure while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily Programme.
“The reality is that until we have our local refining capacity improved, efficient, and inconsistent production, we are not going to be able to say this is when this is going to end,” he said.
According to him, product unavailability and logistic challenges are some of the reasons for recurring fuel scarcity, especially in Abuja, Lagos, and other parts of the country.
He blamed the recent floods for the scarcity of premium motor spirit also known as petrol in Abuja and other places in the North-Central as the roads are impassable.
The PETROAN president, however, attributed Lagos fuel scarcity to unavailability of the product at depots. “As far as Lagos is concerned, if there is a scarcity or price issue in Lagos it is simply based on the fact that there are no products in the depots, that’s the reality,” he said.
On the hike in prices of petroleum products, he said, “Let me explain this to all of us, petroleum product pricing is supposed to be dynamic in the sense that if we bought from (Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited) PPMC depots at PPMC price, everybody is expected to sell in their retail outlets at N165.
“But if we had to buy from other depots who had bought from the PPMC and had to ship it and go through the necessary protocols of delivering it to the depots from where we have to take it, the price will be higher because the cost is dollarised, everything about petroleum products is dollarized that is just what is happening.”
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