Despite the Federal Government’s approval
of N314 billion subsidy payment claims to
oil marketers, Nigerians should brace up for
a prolonged fuel scarcity of not less than
three weeks.
Recall that the Federal Government
Wednesday approved the payment of N413
billion to oil marketers to ensure that filling
stations remain wet with petroleum
products all year round.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Executive Secretary,
Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria
(MOMAN), Mr. Obafemi Olawore, expressed
gratitude to the Federal Government for
approving the N314 billion subsidy claims,
stating that what was approved was 90 per
cent of the amount owed.
Olawore had, in an earlier interaction with
journalists in June, explained that it takes
an average of two weeks for the ordered
consignment to arrive the country. On the
approved N314 billion, he said the
association was expecting to receive the
money any moment soon.
‘‘What they approved for us is about 90 per
cent of the amount owed. We are grateful
to government for that. And for other
outstanding bills such as interest rate and
foreign exchange differentials, we are
working together to arrive at a reasonable
conclusion,’’ he said. Meanwhile, the
Department of Petroleum of Resources
(DPR) yesterday closed down the depots of
Total Nigeria Plc, Dee Jones Limited and
Eterna Oil Plc in Ibafon area of Lagos for
hoarding over 46 million litres of petrol. The
agency has also debunked the claims by
marketers that there is scarcity of petrol
and blamed the tight supply situation on
depot owners, who hoard products, thus
causing panic buying.
While Total and Eterna Oil were hoarding
13.6 million litres each, when DPR’s
surveillance monitoring team visited the
depot, Dee Jones was hoarding about 19.5
million.
However, the General Manager of Dee
Jones, Mr. Willy Ikeora, denied that the
company was hoarding the product in its
depot, stressing that they were loading but
not as fast as expected by DPR.
The regulatory authority also queried Ascon
Oil and ordered the management of the
company to appear at the agency’s head
office by 3pm yesterday to explain why the
company should not be sanctioned for its
slow pace of loading tankers despite the
availability of eight million litres in the
depot.
Integrated Oil and Gas Limited was also
directed to speed up the loading process as
the company had up to 10.2 million litres of
petrol when the agency’s surveillance
monitoring team paid unscheduled visit to
the facility.
Addressing journalists during the inspection,
the Director of DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan,
stated that the sealed depots would pay a
fine of N2 million each, while the others
should explain why they were loading at
very slow pace.
“This exercise was embarked upon because
of the impression that the general public
has about product supply and distribution.
We have been inundated with a lot of
enquiries on the right situation and we have
been telling the public that the people
should not engage in panic buying because
records at our disposal indicate that we
have enough of this product. As at
yesterday nationwide, we had in stock
almost over 300 million litres.
In the Lagos storage area, we have over
220 million litres,” Ladan said.
“So, today, we have decided to come and
see things for ourselves and as you can
see, we have visited about four different
depots now and these products are really in
stock. Where we are now, you can see that
they have 13 million litres in storage but
they are not loading. Why? So, we have
given the management of the depot up till
3pm today (Thursday) to come and proffer
the reasons why liftings are not taking
place and where liftings are taking place,
why we have trickles of liftings,” Ladan
added.

www.sunnewsonline.com/new/subsidy-fuel-scarcity-to-linger-for-3-weeks/

[size=13pt]N314b or N413b?

Approved, released, received...??[/size]

We all no is till December