Abel Orih Idoma
4 November 2007
Makurdi — The inadequate supply of petroleum products to Benue and Nasarawa States through the NNPC Depot Makurdi, has been attributed to pipeline vandalisation by hoodlums and has forced bridging of the products upon the marketers.
This was disclosed by the Operations Controller, Depart-ment of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Makurdi, Alhaji A.M. Takuma, on the occasion of the 2007 DPR/Petroleum Marke-ters' Annual Meeting, which held in Makurdi. Alhaji Takuma stated that both the marketers and the DPR had been operating under tensed situations due to the market regime, stressing that effective monitoring of government approved prices of the petroleum products had been tasking for all the stakeholders.
According to him, "This situation, coupled with the continued lack of loading at the NNPC/PPMC Depot at Makurdi further compounded effective service delivery and monitoring of the sector.
"The non loading at the Depot as we are all aware is as a result of continuous pipeline vandalisation by a well organized syndicate living in the midst of the communities where such atrocities are being perpetuated. This situation has forced bridging of products upon all the marketers with all the attendant hazards".
While acknowledging the pains of the marketers, he disclosed that DPR had made presentations on their behalf to government for increase in supply of petroleum products to both states.
"During the year under review, only 30% of the normal demand of PMS could be met through bridging while AGO was 20%. Kerosene situation is the worst, with a supply of only 5% of the normal demand level", he said.
Adding that, "Government's insistence on uniform prices for petroleum products across the country has by implication put a hold on the practice of arbitrary sourcing for products among petroleum products marketers", stressing that the crackdown on illegal petroleum marketers by his office had put sanity into retailing business.
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