Yemisi Izuora
The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), has said that the present Petrol queue being noticed across the country are caused by exceptional high demand and bottlenecks in the fuel distribution chain.
The Association also said that another major cause is the shortage and high (US Dollar) costs of daughter vessels for ferrying product from mother vessels to depots along the coast.
It also blamed the situation on inadequate number of trucks to meet the demand to deliver product from depots to filling stations nationwide.
These high logistics and exchange rate costs continue to put pressure on prices at the pump, it said in a statement.
While sympathizing with customers and Nigerians over the challenges it said over the past three months, staff & management of MOMAN companies have worked diligently at depots and filling stations to relieve the stress faced by customers through the Christmas and New year period.
“Our members have again agreed to extend depot loading hours as well as keep strategically situated service stations open for longer
hours to ease access to fuels for our customers.
“MOMAN shall continue to use its best endeavors to ensure that product is sold at the pump at prices currently approved by the Regulatory Authorities, despite pressure on price by demand and costs in our immediate operating environment.
“A final resolution to these challenges will be the full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector to encourage liberalization of supply and long-term investments in distribution assets.
“We urge the government to work towards this end goal.” It said.
