Abuja — The Senate Committee on Downstream Petroleum has tasked the Federal Government to take decisive action on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the industry.

The committee chairman, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, also flayed the hoarding of petroleum products by marketers.

"The Federal Government that said November 1, has come up to say early next year.

"I have no quarrel about that, but all I want is that the government should be firm about that. If we are to swallow the better bill, let us swallow it once and for all."

Paulker linked continuing shortages of the products to panic-buying and hoarding.

While affirming that the deregulation of the sector was inevitable, he called for agreement between government and the stakeholders to avoid crisis that could disrupt the peace of the industry.

'"The summary of it all is panic-buying. As we talk now, if you move to the filling stations, there is fuel and they are selling but why the queue?

"There are two positions why people are suffering and the nearest answer to it is people are hoarding it.

"I say it is quite unfortunate, because we are not supposed to experience this type of situation. A situation where you find fuel in all the filling stations and people experience long queues is just bad.