NNPC links shortage to pipeline shutdownTHE scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol, has taken a heavy toll on residents of Lagos as several filling stations continue to claim shortage of the product.The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) attributed the shortage of the product to the shutdown of a pipeline, insisting that it had increased product loading at designated depots across the state.The development has created an opportunity for some black marketers to operate and shoot up the price of the product to about N300 a litre instead of the N97 official price.The black marketers carry plastic containers called jerry cans at various filling stations, where they are supplied fuel in collaboration with attendants and therefore take advantage of customers wary of long queues.Some marketers are said to have devised a method of hording the product in order to get an excessive profit. A few filling stations that sell the product have long queues, which extend to major roads, thereby obstructing traffic flow.The NNPC mega station in Ikoyi, and some filling stations at Agege Motor Road were among those that had long queues of vehicles yesterday. Mobil in Mushin, MRS at Isolo, Forte Oil at Ladipo, Oando at Ikota were among the filling stations that allegedly exhausted their tanks yesterday. Some Total Oil outlets were only selling the product to customers with the Top Card.The Chairman of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Lagos Zone, Tokunbo Korodo told The Guardian that the tanker drivers were doing their best by lifting the product promptly, but that the demand could not be met due to the shortage of the product at depots.He said: 'The tanker drivers are therefore anxiously waiting for a quick resolution by the Federal Government, because this is not what they bargained for.'Korodo attributed the scarcity to the differences between the Federal Government and the marketers, and the vandalised pipeline at Arepo community in Ogun State.He said: 'Some of the indicted marketers are not willing to import due to the subsidy saga. You can imagine a situation where a depot that loads up to 200 trucks per day now loads about 40, that is a huge shortfall and it will definitely affect the market.'He faulted the security operatives for not being able to provide adequate security for the NNPC pipeline, nothing: 'If they are doing their job, the pipeline would not be vandalised. And it is also unfortunate their lapses led to the death of three officials of the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC).'The NUPENG scribe confirmed that the destruction of the pipeline was a major factor for the scarcity because it supplies the product to Mosimi, which feeds Oyo State, Ilorin, Ogun and some parts of Lagos State.The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Fidel Pepple, said that to alleviate the problems resulting from the shutdown of the pipeline, NNPC had stepped up distribution through tankers.He also disclosed that the fuel shortage was due to the 'shutdown of system 2b', a major pipeline that evacuates between nine and 11 million litres of fuel from Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin and the North due to serious vandalism by oil thieves a couple of weeks ago.Pepple said: 'I want to assure Nigerians that NNPC has stepped up fuel supply to marketers and distributors for effective and efficient supply of fuel to Nigerians. As I speak, we have raised the daily supply of fuel from Folawiyo tank farm from 150 tankers to 250 tankers, MRS from 100 to 200 tankers, Capital Oil to 300 tankers, NIPCO to 70 tankers and AITEO to 100 tankers,' he said.He added that fuel delivery and supply to Port Harcourt, Aba and Calabar had also been augmented, saying that bridging to the North had equally enjoyed robust supply.Pepple added that as at Thursday last week, the NNPC had 32 days sufficiency of petroleum products.He added that NNPC was collaborating with the security agencies to fix the pipeline in order to restore normal fuel supply to the affected areas.
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