LAGOS – The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), on Thursday reassured Nigerians that refined petrol would be available nationwide from Friday.
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Mr Thomas Olawore, the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, gave Nigerians the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Olawore said MOMAN members had ensure that the scarcity of petroleum products eased in the worst affected areas on or before Friday.
He said that marketers had undertaken massive movement of products to various locations, including the major cities, to ensure that normalcy returned in the distribution of petroleum products.
Olawore added that major oil marketers so far had moved 132 trucks from their facilities to Lagos, while 87 trucks were moved to Abuja.
According to him, the figure exclude those supplied by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot owners and independent marketers.
“On Tuesday, another 135 trucks were moved to Lagos and 139 trucks to Abuja.
“I assure Nigerians that there are sufficient stock of fuel to meet demands and hopefully, before weekend, everything will normalise.
“Scarcity in Lagos is already easing out based on what the Finance Ministry and CBN have done, three marketers have brought in cargoes. Tough days are over,” he said.
Meanwhile, NAN reports that petrol situation in Lagos has returned to normalcy as most filling stations were seen dispensing the products across the metropolis.
NAN also observed that those stations which had no fuel since Monday had commenced selling, while vehicles were seen driving in and out buying at ease.
It will be called that on March 3, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said that there was no need to worry or engage in panic buying as there was sufficient stock to meet the demands of Nigerians.
He said that when the CBN learnt of the issues surrounding the delay, it ordered banks to open letters of credit for marketers to ease the problem of refined petrol importation.
According to him, within a week of those discussions with the banks, letters of credit worth over 500 million dollars were opened to enable the marketers import about 600 million litres of petrol.
He said that in spite of the recent closure of the foreign exchange windows, the CBN would continue to supply foreign exchange into the interbank market.
The governor said that the apex bank would also intervene to ensure uninterrupted supply of petroleum products.
Also, the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr Farouk Ahmed, said that the Minister of Petroleum Resources had given anticipatory approval for supplementary allocation to eight of the marketers.
Ahmed said that the eight banks were those that had exhausted their supply from the first quarter.
He said the combined stock of petrol stood at 818 million metric tons (over a billion litres) for the month of March.
According to him, about 400,000 metric tonnes (about 500,000 litres) are stored offshore Lagos for distribution to the marketing companies and their depots in Apapa and NNPC facilities in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Ahmed said that discussion was ongoing with truck owners on how to resolve the distribution problems, noting that the total national fuel sufficiency offshore and at the depots could last 33 days.
“This means that even without additional fuel importation, the nation can survive for 33 days,” he said. (NAN)
