Fuel scarcity Oil depots grounded in North

Thursday, 05 May 2011 00:00 Hamisu Muhammad

　
 All the petroleum lifting depots in Northern Nigeria are grounded, Daily Trust investigation has revealed.
The depots are in: Suleja, Minna, Ilorin, Yola, Markurdi, Kano, Gusau, Maiduguri, Gombe, and Jos.
Filling stations now receive fuel through bridging which has of recent been held back by high prices and scarcity of diesel, resulting in fuel queues in most cities in the northern part of Nigeria.
But Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke said the new fuel queues should not be attributed to scarcity but because of the recent holidays.
The diesel scarcity which led to increase in its price to N220 a litre has also jerked up the prices of cement and manufacturing products in the country. Nigerian manufacturers rely on diesel to power their plants as the country’s electricity sector is comatose.
Investigation by our reporter revealed that part of the reasons behind the recent scarcity is the non operations of many petroleum products depots within the country that left Abuja and other cities in the country at the mercy of few oil trucks.
At the moment, only few depots in Lagos and Port Harcourt, comprising of private and government own depots are functioning.
Fuel transporters have cut down the number of their fleets that bridge products as a result of the soaring price of diesel in the market.
"We are buying diesel at N200 to N220 per litre, and we cannot afford to run all our trucks at the same time at that price. We don’t have that money to fuel our fleet, it’s too expensive to run" said Alhaji Lawan Isa, the National Coordinator, National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).
NARTO controls over 90 percent of the fuel distribution network nationwide. They were at loggerheads with the authorities over soaring price of diesel in recent times.
There are about 22 government own petroleum depots in the country, majority of which were vandalized and have remained idle.
The closure of the depots caused over reliance on bridging which shut up the volume of claims by the transporters to government for settlement.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja, the GM Corporate Services, Mr Goddy Nnadi, Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board (PEF) said even though the claims are huge but the payment system has .

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