The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has decried the situation whereby only one storage tank out of nine installed at the Ejigbo Depot was working.
It appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to rehabilitate all the moribund storage facilities within the depots which made up the western zone to enhance effective distribution of petroleum products.
Alhaji Ayo Alanamu, the Chairman, Ejigbo Satellites Depot of IPMAN, in Lagos on Monday said that this would address the fuel distribution challenges in the zone.
He said that only one out of nine storage tanks in Ejigbo Depot was currently working; adding that this was not sufficient for petroleum distribution.
He said that this had also contributed to the scarcity of petrol and the long queues of trucks awaiting loading at the depot.
According to him, marketers hardly load 50 trucks from the depot due to the dilapidated state of the storage tanks there.
“We were loading between 15 trucks and 17 trucks daily before it was repaired.
“That was not enough for marketers to distribute to their customers.
“We appeal to the Federal Government through the NNPC to revive all the damaged tanks so as to increase the fuel storage capacity to 200 trucks daily.
“Government should ensure effective repairs of all the dilapidated storage facilities within the western zone to beef-up storage and loading capacity to at least 1million trucks on daily basis.
“This will address frequent fuel challenges in the country,’’ he said.
The IPMAN boss said that if depots had enough stocks, marketers would work 24-hours to ensure that the product gets to every nook and cranny of the states.
Alanamu appealed to the government to revive the depots so that they could operate to work 24-hours daily and facilitate effective service delivery to reduce queues within the depots.
He also appealed to the government to allow marketers to import petrol and sell at the current prevailing market price.
According to him, no marketers can import at N171 landing cost per litre and sell at N145 at their stations.
