The National Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, James Tor, has said that the Israel-Iran crisis is the major cause of the current paucity of fuel in Nigeria.
He made this disclosure during an interview on Arise on Wednesday.
Tor underlined the role of the Federal Government in importing petroleum products and allocating them to stakeholders, including IPMAN, for their distribution.
He pointed out that the present challenges have been exacerbated by regional geopolitical tensions, which are creating bottlenecks in the supply chain.
However, he noted that to ensure a continuous supply of products, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC had increased its efforts towards mitigating this situation by opening depots.
He said, “The people that bring in the petroleum products into the country is the federal government. And when they bring in these products, they give us the stakeholders (which the IPMAN is one of) for distribution. So it’s what we get that we can give out. If there are no products, then we can’t give out anything.
“But the federal government is doing much. Even on Monday, my National President was explaining that the NNPC had opened up some of their depots so we could have enough products supplied and distributed to the public.
“The president of IPMAN called me earlier and informed me of the increase in supply. So what we are witnessing is just a breach of what is going on.
“And what is going on? You see, the crises that are going on in the Middle East. The crisis between Israel and Iran is also affecting the distribution of fuel. All these things if you put them together, affect supply and distribution of petroleum products.”
There are currently long queues witnessed across the country as a result of fuel shortage.
Recall that the NNPC had on Tuesday said the current fuel shortage alongside the queues would be resolved on Wednesday.
Chief Communication Officer of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye stated that NNPCL has more than 1.5 Billion litres of fuel in stock, sufficient to last for at least 30 days.
