Fuel scarcity: One storage facility functional at Ejigbo Depot, says IPMAN

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association
of Nigeria ( IPMAN ) has decried the situation
whereby only one storage tank out of nine
installed at the Ejigbo Depot was working.
It appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation ( NNPC ) to rehabilitate all the
moribund storage facilities within the depots
which made up the western zone to enhance
effective distribution of petroleum products.
Alhaji Ayo Alanamu, the Chairman, Ejigbo
Satellites Depot of IPMAN, said on Monday that
this would address the fuel distribution challenges
in the zone.
He said only one out of nine storage tanks in
Ejigbo Depot, was currently working; adding that
this was not sufficient for petroleum distribution.
He said this had also contributed to the scarcity
of petrol and the long queues of trucks awaiting
loading at the depot.
According to him, marketers hardly load 50 trucks
from the depot due to the dilapidated state of the
storage tanks there.
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“ We were loading between 15 trucks and 17
trucks daily before it was repaired.
“That was not enough for marketers to distribute
to their customers.
“ We appeal to the Federal Government through
the NNPC to revive all the damaged tanks so as
to increase the fuel storage capacity to 200
trucks daily.
“ Government should ensure effective repairs of all
the dilapidated storage facilities within the
western zone to beef-up storage and loading
capacity to at least 1million trucks on daily basis.
“This will address frequent fuel challenges in the
country,’’ he said.
The IPMAN boss said if depots had enough
stocks, marketers would work 24-hours to ensure
that the product gets to every nook and cranny of
the states.
Alanamu appealed to the government to revive
the depots so that they could operate to work 24-
hours daily and facilitate effective service delivery
to reduce queues within the depots.
He also appealed to government to allow
marketers to import petrol and sell at the current
prevailing market price.
According to him, no marketers can import at
N171 landing cost per litre and sell at N145 at
their stations.
NAN