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The Federal Government's inability to produce enough petroleum products for marketers throughout the nation has been criticized by petroleum marketers for the ongoing increase in the price of gasoline.
Ejike Jonathan, the secretary for Rivers State of the Petroleum Product Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, claimed that because the nation's refineries are inoperable, private depot owners are now the sole sources of petroleum goods.
Jonathan mentioned that only two of the 19 depots in Rivers State are supplying goods to traders.
According to him, there is a mismatch between supply and demand due to the FG's supply constraint.
"Refineries should operate at their peak efficiency so that they can sell to retailers; private depot operators will now mitigate the effect so that there will be market equilibrium," added Jonathan. But refineries are idle rather than doing that.
"We currently find ourselves in an epileptic situation where PDOs are providing the marmot mob. There are now only two PDOs that carry petroleum items as I speak with you. The cost of transportation is over N400,000.
"Tanker drivers were charging somewhere between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 a month a few months ago, which is a multiplier impact and will affect supply and demand."
Jonathan clarified that petroleum marketers seek items, even those outside the state, and sell by what they obtain from private depots to explain why the price of gasoline varies at different filling stations.
Individuals "sell as they buy," he observed.
