Fuel scarcity caused by Nigeria Navy's delay ship clearance says IPMAN

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has
blamed the resurgent long queues in filling stations across the
country on security operatives' delay of the cargo ship awaiting
clearance on the high sea.

The association's President, Abdulkadir Aminu, who stated this in
Abuja yesterday, said there would be continued disruption in discharge
and loading at various depot until the relevant authorities speed up
the clearance process.

Speaking in an interview, the IPMAN boss said 'In a situation where
you have disruption for 24 hours, its effect would last for about five
to seven days, not to talk of when you have disruption for three to
five days'.

Faulting the allegation that marketers are responsible for the
scarcity, the IPMAN President said: 'I totally disagree with the
insinuations that marketers are the ones hoarding the products.

'The real issue is on the high sea. To what extent can a marketer
hoard the product at the filling station On the high sea, we have 42
days sufficiency, so how can a marketer hoard

'The situation we have today has to do with logistics. That is the
operations at the jetties, including the shore tanks, because of the
little problem we had one week ago, which was the contraction in
supply. The contraction was as a result of the ship-to-ship transfer
on the high sea.

'And I want to tell you that up to this moment, to the best of my
knowledge, there are still delays in the clearance of these ships from
the high sea. And these delays lead to other issues that cause
disruption in loading at various depots across the country'.

According to Aminu, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
has made frantic efforts to ensure that all the tank farms are open
for products discharge, but the biggest problem is the ship-to-ship
transfer on the high sea, which he said have to be cleared before the
exercise would be conducted.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.