Festus Osifo: Contract issues between shipowners led to petrol scarcity

Festus Osifo, the president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), says contractual issues between mother and daughter vessels caused the current petrol scarcity. 

Mother vessels are large ocean-going ships that deliver products in bulk, while daughter ships receive such products from them. 

Queues recently resurfaced in filling stations amid a scarcity of petrol that has led to an increase in transport costs.

On April 25, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limitm attributed the shortfall in supply to logistics issues. 

Speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme on Sunday, Osifo, who also doubles as the president of Trade Union of Nigeria (TUC), said the logistic issue has been resolved. 

“Today, just by what has been explained by the NNPC, that that is a logistics issue,” he said.

“Breaking down what that logistics issue is, as at today, there are some challenges from our findings, because we try to relate with our members in NNPC as well as our members in NMDPRA. 

“So, part of the challenge today is that the bigger vessels — the tankers — they bring this PMS to our shores.”

According to the PENGASSAN president, when shipowners bring the products, the daughter vessels are needed to take the products from the bigger vessels down to the tank farms where it could be distributed to the retail outlets.

“But, as it is today, there is a break down because there were some contractual issues that actually happened in there. But, I think that has been sorted,” Osifo said.

However, he said the revamping of the local refineries will mitigate this kind of occurrence in the future.