Some stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have urged Federal Government to deregulate downstream sector to save the country from frequent fuel scarcity embarrassment during the yuletide period.
They gave the advice in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos against the backdrop of the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
Alhaji Debo Ahmed, Chairman, South-West zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said that the only way to ease the continuous fuel scarcity experienced during December seasons was to fully deregulate the sector to enable marketers to import and sell at profitable price.
Ahmed claimed that government could no longer meet up with petrol allocation distribution to depots within the western zone, adding that most depots hardly received 10 trucks from government against 150 trucks.
According to him, deregulation would have been the best option to address the scarcity; it will ease government from continuous struggling to meet the country’s daily consumption during the yuletide period.
The IPMAN boss said that government should also ensure that the refineries worked at full capacity.
According to him, it is only NNPC that is bringing products because currently no marketers are importing petrol because the landing cost is higher than selling price.
“If the sector is fully deregulated, many marketers will import petrol and sell at actual market price and also save government from paying subsidy.
“Before now, diesel used to be very scarce and challenging but since it has been deregulated, every marketer brings it and sells at competitive price,’’ he said.
Alhaji Dele Tajudeen, immediate past Chairman, Mosinmi depot, said that petrol scarcity might linger for sometime in the country if government failed to deregulate the sector to allow other marketers to import and sell at market prevailing price.
Tajudeen alleged that inability of marketers to import the product caused current scarcity, adding that no marketer could import petrol when the landing cost was higher than the selling cost.
According to him, inability of government to sustain pumping of petrol to all depots within the country was responsible for the long queues in Apapa and scarcity experienced the country.
“Out of five depots within the western zone, only three are loading at minimal capacity.
”Ibadan, Ejigbo and Mosinmi hardly load 50 trucks on daily basis.
“Before now, 200 trucks were being loaded but now hardly would each depot load five in a day,” he said.
Tajudeen urged the government to engage the marketers and other stakeholders in the sector in dialogue to ease the sufferings of motorists.
Mr Olufemi Adewole, the Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) explained that the reason marketers were not importing was that the landing cost of petrol had increased to about N172.76 per litre.
According to him, ” if you add all the distribution costs, the pump price will stand at N182.17 kobo.
“But the government is saying we should sell at N145 without subsidy. That is why we have to depend on NNPC to sell to us.
“We cannot import because no marketer can import at that big margin.
“We also noticed a supply gap in what they brought in. It was not enough at a particular time and the result is what we are seeing today,” Adewole said.
Adewole said deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry remained the best option to move the economy forward.
He said it would bring in investments into the sector, adding that only deregulation would encourage the establishment of private refineries in the country.
According to him, the government should summon the courage to fully deregulate and remove subsidy or embark on continuous subsidy regime payment when due.
“If government likes, it can introduce gradual removal of subsidy but it should not go beyond 6 to 18 months period.
“If fully deregulated with rules, you will have the serious investors coming in to invest adequately,” he said.
According to him, deregulation is the answer and the government should talk to the people and let them understand the advantages.
The executive secretary also said that the foreign exchange element affected the business. (NAN)
