Lagos — The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has berated the Federal Government over the scarcity of kerosene in the country.

South West Zonal Chairman of the union, Alhaji Tokunboh Korodo, told Daily Trust yesterday that the government's inability to make the nation's refineries produce enough kerosene for consumption and its refusal to make functional the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's loading points in the country have largely contributed to increased scarcity of the product.

According to him, only one or two NNPC depots are currently loading kerosene nationwide, while others have been grounded for years.

He said: "For over 10 years, NNPC at Ilorin, Ibadan, Ore and Mosinmi have not loaded kerosene.NNPC in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country has not loaded product for 15 years."

Korodo also expressed worry over the failure of the product to be sold at N50 per litre and blamed the development on profiteering by operators.