Agency blames non-loading at NNPC depots for high price of kerosene

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Thursday said the hike in kerosene price was due to non-loading of petroleum products at NNPC depots.

Alhaji Tokunko Korodo, the South-West Chairman of NUPENG, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, system 2B oil pipeline is used by NNPC to pump petroleum products from Atlas Cove in Lagos to Mosinmi, Ibadan, Ilorin and Northern part of the country.

The NUPENG chairman said the system also accounted for a third of the product’s supply in the country.

Korodo said that marketers in the South-West were forced to patronise private depot owners where they bought the product at high rates.

He said that the activities at the NNPC depots in the area had been halted and were currently adversely affecting commercial activities.

The chairman advised the management of NNPC to commence loading at its depots.

Korodo also blamed traffic gridlock in some part of Lagos for the indiscriminate parking by petroleum tankers due to non-loading at the NNPC’s depots.

"We are urging the management of NNPC to start loading petroleum products in its depots.

"Since May, loading of products at the depots has stopped, thereby making marketers to look for petroleum products, especially kerosene, at private depots in Lagos.

"This factor has also contributed to the increase in the pump price of kerosene because it is cheaper at NNPC depots nationwide.

"Currently, most of NNPC mega stations and major marketers’ filling stations are not dispensing kerosene.

"Government should come out and tell Nigerians why NNPC mega stations and major marketers’ filling stations are not selling kerosene?

"Few stations that have the product are selling at N240 per litre; this is too much,’’ he said.