The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Wednesday disclosed that 10 ships loaded with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, bulk wheat, base oil, general cargo, bulk fertilizer and bulk sugar had arrived Lagos ports to finally berth.
The port regulator also hinted that another 20 ships at the ports were discharging fuel, bulk wheat, general cargo, container, bulk salt, ethanol, bulk sugar and frozen fish.
In addition, it also reported that 24 other ships with petroleum products, food items and other goods were expected to arrive the nation’s ports between May 11 and May 26.
According to the authority, the 24 ships were conveying general cargo, bulk gypsum, bulk salt, automobile gasoline, frozen fish, bulk sugar, container, jet fuel, fuel and butane gas.
Petroleum industry upstream subsector analysts believe that with the arrival of the petrol laden ships, the latest fuel scarcity in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may be addressed, thereby ending prolong queues of motorists in the fuel stations.
Investigations by BRTNews.ng on Wednesday regarding the fuel situation in Abuja indicated that most filling stations were not dispensing fuel based on their installed capacity just as others remained shut due to lack of fuel to dispense.
A petrol attendant in one of the fuel stations, who simple identified himself as Haruna, told our correspondent that his station was not selling petrol “because the fuel has finished and we don’t know when we will be selling again.
It would be recalled that the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), had on Tuesday asked the Federal Government to pay marketers their bridging claims to enable them commence the lifting of petroleum products from the nation’s depots.
The IPMAN Public Relations Officer, Mallam Yakubu Suleiman, was quoted as making the demand during a telephone chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja
The association had earlier claimed that government owed its members about N500 billion as bridging claims.
To urgently address the fuel scarcity crisis, Suleiman also urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited) to convert the special allocation of products meant for cargo to the independent marketers for distribution nationwide.
Suleiman explained: “We are calling on the Nigeria downstream and mainstream regulatory authorities to try and pay our marketers their bridging claims as from today.
“This is important, so that as soon as we get the payment, we can give directives to marketers to start loading their trucks, so that they can start transporting petroleum products.
“We are calling on the authorities and the NNPC to quickly allocate a certain cargo of AGO for IPMAN to distribute it to their members to enable them fuel their trucks for accelerated bridging loading.
“There is no money to buy the product until the Federal Government pays our claims and assist in allocating a cargo of AGO to us to hasten loading from various loading deports”, the IPMAN spokesman added.
