Govt imports 26 cargoes of PMS for Christmas

THE Federal Government has made an arrangement to import about 26 cargoes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as fuel, to ensure the free flow of the product during Christmas season.

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who made this disclosure yesterday during the inspection of filling stations in Lagos, warned all depot owners to desist from selling petrol above official depot price of N 77.66k.

He said that the government would embark on truck tracking from next month to ensure effective delivery of product from loading point to destination.

The minister said that the country has enough petroleum products that can serve the nation beyond the yuletide period, adding that the major challenge on the scarcity was due to inability of marketers to receive their subsidy claim.

According to him, “we are here to see what is going on in the depot so as to ascertain the level of availability of the product in most of the depots we used for our throughput.”

He stated: “You can see the challenge we are having in bringing products, we are doing all we could to ensure free flow of products, while lots of vessels are coming into the country before December. The amount of cargoes expected in December is enough to serve the country; we need to deal with logistic issues.

“Profiteering by people is one of the major problems we are having.
Nigerians should stop punishing their fellow Nigerians because of making profit.”

Kachikwu said that he has instructed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to sanction any depot owner found selling above depot price.

He appealed to Nigerians to be more patient, adding that non-payment of subsidy claims of marketers contributed to the ongoing scarcity.

The minister said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had been the only corporation importing directly, adding that the National Assembly would pay marketers part of their money this week.