9 November 2009
Port — CONTRARY to speculations that the scarcity of petroleum products in Port-Harcourt was due to hoarding by petrol stations, investigations, weekend, revealed that it was largely caused by a short-fall in supply by the Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC).
During a surveillance operation carried out by a team from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the state, operators of some of the petrol stations said PPMC had not been regular with supply of the product, a situation, some said, had forced them to patronise private depots in far away Lagos.
Some, who could not afford the cost of getting the product from private depots, said they had to close shop until such a time when they could lift from the PPMC.
Management of Ben Oil, on East-West Road, said the last time they lifted from PPMC was three months ago.
It said the station would remain closed to operations until they are able to lift products from PPMC, stressing that the station could not buy from private depots and still sell at approved rate of N65 per litre.
At Nike Chukwu and Dose Marine filling stations, it was the same complain, as the management said supply from PPMC had been very epileptic.
"We have received about three allocations in the last one month. One was from PPMC, while the other two we had to buy from Lagos. And it is too expensive," officials of the station said.
Paflox filling station said the last time they got product from PPMC was in September, adding "we don't get regularly from there, so we either go to Oando or buy from Lagos state".
Except for Prime oil filling station on East-West road that was seen selling kerosene far above the approved rate of N55 per liter, all other filling stations visited said they last lifted kerosene from PPMC about eight months ago.
Meanwhile, head of the DPR team, Mr. Alex Ikeanyionwu, and the head, retail outlet and marketing, Mr. Abdullahi Isah, has ordered the filling station to sell their kerosene at the approved rate.
Two of the filling stations that were suspected to be hoarding petrol were sanctioned, while another one on East-West road was also sanctioned for under delivery of petrol to customers.
At one of the stations sanctioned, it was suspected that they only sold fuel at night and far above the approved rate.
The manager of the filling station said their generator was giving them problems, explaining that was why they were not selling at the time the surveillance team came.
Speaking on the essence of the surveillance, the duo of Alex Ikeanyionwu and Abdullahi Isah of the DPR said it was to ascertain the real factors responsible for the seeming scarcity of petroleum product in the state.
They said from complaints by most of the dealers, it was clear that the product was not enough, adding that the responsibility of DPR was to ensure the product got to the public at approved rate.
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