FOLLOWING the hints that Nigeria might be facing another round of fuel crisis on Friday, oil marketers in Nigeria, under the aegis of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), disclosed that oil marketers now only import 10 per cent of petroleum products into the country.
DAPPMA disclosed that as at today, 90 per cent of petroleum products in the country were imported by the NNPC, as part of its intervention programme to prevent scarcity of the product, while oil marketers only import 10 per cent.
This was contained in a statement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in Abuja, when members of DAPPMA paid a courtesy visit to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru in Abuja.
Chairman of DAPPMA, Mr Dapo Abiodun lamented that despite the huge investments of its members in the downstream sector, they were not able to contribute much to efficiency in the system.
According to him, certain operational exigencies have forced oil marketers in the country to perform below capacity.
He said, “In the past, we were importing 70 per cent of products while NNPC was importing 30 per cent, being the supplier of last resort which is their responsibility. They moved to doing 50 per cent and by November, they were doing about 90 per cent of the volumes.
“So we have to come and appreciate them because in spite of the constraints that got them to take on the burden of increasing their importation from 30 per cent to 50 per cent and then 90 per cent, there were no hiccups, there were no queues, there were no shortages. We think NNPC should be commended for that.”
In his response, Baru said the NNPC was aware of the challenges being encountered in the sub-sector, stressing that he was hopeful that appropriate government agencies would come to their rescue soon.
