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Marketers warn that ongoing fuel scarcity could last until June

The nationwide fuel shortage may last until June 2023. This is according to oil marketers who said that the issue is due to the country’s widespread gasoline supply crisis.

Since last year, Nigeria’s downstream oil industry has struggled with persistent gasoline shortages. Despite this, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), the country’s sole importer, has frequently lamented the significant burden of paying for fuel subsidies.

However, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, the National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), bemoaned the problems in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, claiming that fuel imports and subsidies were harming Nigerians. He was speaking about the protracted fuel scarcity challenge.

In his own words: “This subsidy issue and the importation of petroleum products are the main causes of our hardship and our supply of epileptic PMS. This may take until either June of this year or until the current administration leaves office in May.

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“The exchange rate is affecting fuel imports, which is also why the cost of petroleum products is high. We use too much naira to chase the few dollars that are available. So the solution is for us to refine our crude here and get our depots working.

“Also, we should note that most times when an administration is leaving, there is usually a scarcity of products. It happened during the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“This is because suppliers will be very weary of selling petroleum products so that their debts will not be carried over to the next administration. Successive governments have suffered this epileptic distribution of petroleum products during the transition to a new government.

“The government is winding up, and if you are a supplier you have to be careful in terms of supplying petroleum products. Remember that when Jonathan was there, marketers who were supplying products stopped and went on strike, demanding that they must be paid their arrears.”

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