After what seemed like a relieve heading towards last weekend, fuel scarcity deepened further in Lagos, yesterday, with several filling stations shutting their gates to motorists while the few that opened had long queues of vehicles.
Along the Alausa Secretariat road, the NNPC (former Oando) was shut to motorists. The same situation it was in Total filling station in Ojota and Palm Grove. However, Heyden filling station in Ilupeju, though sold fuel, had a long queue of vehicles waiting to buy the product.
Although no immediate reason could be given for yesterday’s development, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (lPMAN), however blamed it on the increasing difficulty in sourcing the commodity.
The IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Mike Osatuyi, in a telephone interview with The Nation, yesterday, explained that at the moment, most of his members cannot source the commodity because of the supply shortage that has lingered. Besides, he said getting petrol to members’ filling stations from the depots now costs as much as N200 per litre in some instances.
“It is a sad development. Some of my members now pay as much as N200 per litre to buy petrol from the depot, including cost of transportation and other charges incurred. So in this situation, how much do you think we will sell petrol at the pump?” he asked rhetorically.
Osatuyi maintained that the fuel situation is not likely to ease up except government finds a lasting solution to the supply issues and cost. One way to address this is the implementation of total deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry.
“Total deregulation remains the best solution to ending fuel scarcity. The deregulation of the downstream sector remains the only potent and lasting solution to this scarcity. But the cost implication of the policy will make the price of petrol too expensive for Nigerians, as deregulation will shift the burden from the government to users of the product,” Osatuyi told The Nation, adding that payment of subsidy is no longer sustainable. He urged Nigerians face reality now to avoid the unpalatable experiences that is usually the fallout of scarcity.
Subsidy, Osatuyi further argued, kills efficiency in the procurement and supply chain of petrol business operations and deprives government of huge revenue. Besides, he contended that subsidy does not allow competition- a reason he said may be reason the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has continued to enjoy the monopoly of being the sole importer, manager and distributor of petrol in the country
