NNPC, marketers land three cargoes of kerosene to end scarcity

Relief is under way for millions of Nigerian households as measures have been activated to end the lingering scarcity and high cost of kerosene in the country.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) started discharging over three cargoes of dual purpose kerosene (DPK) to soak the market with the household fuel and also crash the soaring prices of the product.
One of three 30, 000 metric ton cargoes laden in the tanker, MT Rhino, started feeding the tank farms of the major petroleum marketers comprising Oando, Total, Mobil, Forte and MRS for rapid distribution to their retail outlets across the country.
Other groups of marketers including innumerable independent marketing firms and depot operators are scheduled to be fed with proportionate volumes of imported products by next week.
Group General Manager, Public Affairs, of NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, who conducted newsmen to the scene of the discharge said the measure was to overwhelm the market with supplies and restore pump prices to the recommended N50 per liter.
According to him, stakeholders in the downstream petroleum market have resolved their differences over the scarcity in the market and now collaborate to end scarcity of kerosene in the market within the next ten days.
The three marketing groups in the downstream petroleum market are Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA).
Dr. Ajuonuma said all the market groups in the country's downstream petroleum industry have made commitments to sustain efforts that would ensure that scarcity of petroleum products would not experienced in the country again.
According to him, distribution of the petroleum products from the imported cargoes and output from the refineries would be monitored by stakeholders including petroleum workers' unions, marketers' joint task forces, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and NNPC.
Marketers caught in diversion of products and other acts of sabotage, he said, would be subjected severe penal measures that might include withdrawal of their marketing licenses.
Radio Nigeria correspondent reports that the measures deployed by government came in response to a spate of public outcry over the worsening scarcity and associated soaring prices of kerosene in the market.
The product the retail prices of which is subsidized by the government, had in the past few months broke the price caps and jumped from the recommended N50 per liter to N280 per liter in remote locations.
NNPC which had claimed that it was supplying enough products from the local refineries blamed the scarcity on distribution bottlenecks in the operations of the marketers, adding that such impediments to circulation of products in the fuel market have now been dismantled for speedy distribution.
With the present arrangement, Dr. Ajuounuma said, NNPC and the marketers would be pushing about 12 million liters daily to the retail outlets to oversupply the estimated national daily peak demand of eight million liters of kerosene per day.
He made it clear that all the arrangements being evolved would be sustained to achieve a permanent solution to scarcity of petroleum products in the country.
Source:radionigeria