Nigerian oil marketers have lamented that about 75 percent of filling stations across the country are currently out of business due to their inability to purchase the diesel required to power their tankers and transport Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to their various outlets.
Marketers, who stated this to newsmen yesterday, also stated that the cost of diesel would keep increasing and might hit N1,500/litre in the next two weeks if nothing drastic was done to curtail the current challenge faced by importers of the deregulated commodity.
Dealers under the aegis of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association, (NOGASA), told newsmen in Abuja that this was also the reason why petrol scarcity had failed to abate in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger States, among others.
Speaking on behalf of the marketers, the NOGASA National President, Bennett Korie, stated that this was the major reason why fuel queues had failed to clear in Abuja, as many filling stations lacked the funds to buy diesel at a high cost to run their trucks, transport petrol to the capital city and would still be made to sell PMS at N165/litre.
He explained that Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and other states closer to these areas had no queues because the three named cities had seaports and large depots for loading and distributing petroleum products.
According to him, the only solution to the current challenge was for the Federal Government to raise the pump price of petrol a little in order to reduce the huge foreign exchange used in PMS imports. This, he said, would eventually free up some forex for diesel imports, a development that would impact positively on the rising cost of diesel, stressing that the product was currently sold at N850/litre.
Asked whether anything was being done to address the challenge, Korie suggested that the Government should increase the price of fuel a little to reduce the money spent on PMS subsidy.
He said: “I know Nigerians will not be happy to hear this, but this is the only solution. They should increase the price of fuel a little so that the savings will enable the Central Bank of Nigeria to have enough foreign exchange.
Korie further stated that if the government could bring down the rate at which it spends foreign exchange on PMS imports, this would will help other businessmen who import diesel to bring in products at low prices.
“So you need to increase fuel price a little in order to ensure that the dollars spent in importing petrol is reduced and there will be enough forex for importers of diesel and this will cut down the price of diesel”.
Economic experts and operators in the oil sector had repeatedly called on the Federal Government to stop subsidising petrol in order to halt the humungous foreign exchange spent on its imports.
The Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr. Muda Yusuf, also told newsmen that subsidy in petrol should be cautiously and gradually removed based on its depleting effects on both federal and state governments’ revenues.
