Oil marketers: Why petrol scarcity in northern states may linger till after elections

Oil marketers say some parts of the country may face petrol scarcity until after the upcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections due to restriction of movement. 

Following the presidential and national assembly elections, queues for petrol have resurfaced in parts of Abuja and other northern states.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had said the scarcity was caused by the restriction of movements during the recently concluded presidential elections.

The situation was compounded as truck drivers had to travel to exercise their civic duty in the elections, authority added.

Speaking on the issue on Wednesday, Mike Osatuyi, national operations controller of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said the scarcity situation could last until after the elections.

This is because truck drivers would also want to travel in order to fulfill their civic duties, he said.

“The same thing will repeat this weekend. Everybody wants to go and vote and everybody has candidates and the governorship election is going to be tougher than the presidential elections because that is the grassroot,” he explained in a phone interview with TheCable.

“That is the people who will determine the state, so we will have some repeat of scarcity this weekend and probably next week. Once the elections are over, everything will return to normal.

“For instance, people (truck drivers) who want to vote may travel today or tomorrow.”

Clement Isong, chief executive officer (CEO), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), said members of the group may not be able to move petroleum products for three days —  Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

He, however, said the group is putting its best foot forward to ensure that the scarcity does not persist in parts of the country, especially up north.

“We are doing our best to avoid such a situation. We have been trying to get as many trucks as possible to evacuate products from Lagos to the north into the tanks of filling stations as much as possible so that there is stock before and after the elections,” he said.

“But hopefully, if we have stock in the filling station, and there is limited movement for people during the elections, we hope to reduce that impact as much as possible. 

“If there will be, it will be reduced but we hope to avoid it.”

‘BAN ON MOVEMENT DURING ELECTIONS CAUSE OF CURRENT SCARCITY’

The MOMAN boss blamed the resurgence of scarcity in northern states as well as Abuja on the ban on movement during elections.

“The only reason was that there was a ban on movement for the elections which was announced as we all know. And the truth is, we really cannot tell people to not vote,” he said. 

“But there was a ban on movement and people had to leave their trucks to allow them to vote.

“Now that we have seen that unintended consequence, the scarcity happened because we had just gotten out of the previous scarcity and we were not operating from the top of the tanks. 

“If you are operating from the top of your tanks, maybe like you have stocks in your station, you can survive two to four days without supply.”

‘PANIC BUYING MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO CURTAIL SCARCITY’

 He said when supply is disrupted for two to three days, filling stations’ tanks run dry.

To avoid this, the association could try to get as “many trucks of new products as possible and try to fill up the tanks”, he said.

Meanwhile, Isong said there may only be two days of scarcity after the elections, on the premise that trucks resume movement and panic buying is avoided.

“I think we will barely make it. So, you might still have maybe one or two days of scarcity thereafter provided that as soon as the elections is over, the trucks can resume movement of products and provided that there is no panic buying,” he said.

“You have queues during panic buying and somebody that was buying N1,000 is now filling their tanks with N10,000 to N15,000. It just makes it impossible. It’s a combination of the panic buying and the queues that create a problem.”

Speaking further, he asked that citizens have confidence in the system and “for people to believe that there is stock so that they can stop panic buying”.

“Once they stop panic buying, we can stock up the stations and then have enough stock to continue to supply people,” he said.

The MOMAN CEO said members of his association have been able to stock up Lagos filling stations with petroleum products “because there is product in the depots”.

“The association is also working to push products up to the north as much as possible,” he said.

“The problem, now of course, is that it takes a while for the trucks to get to the north. Instead of two to three days, it takes three to four days now, which is too long.”