By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT – CONTRARY to thinking in many quarters that the scarcity of petroleum products in Port Harcourt is as a result of hoarding by filling stations, findings have revealed short fall in supply of the product to filling stations by the Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC) is largely responsible.

During a surveillance operation carried out by  a team  from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the state recently  operators of some of the filling stations spoken to said  PPMC had not been regular with supply of the product, a situation some said had forced them to patronize private depots in far away Lagos.

Some who could not afford the cost of getting the product from private depots said they had to close shop until such a time when they could lift from the PPMC.  The management of Ben Oil on East West road said the last time they lifted from PPMC was three months ago.  The management said the station would remain close to operations until they lift product from PPMC. This is because they can’t afford the high cost of buying from private depot and still sell at the approved rate of sixty five naira per liter.

At Nike Chukwu and Dose Marine filling stations, it was the same complain. They said supply from PPMC had been very epileptic. “We have received about three allocations in the last one month. One was from PPMC while the other two we had to buy from Lagos. And it is too expensive”. Paflox filling station said the last time they got product from PPMC was in September. “We don’t get regularly from there so we either go to Oando or buy from Lagos state”.

Except for Prime oil filling station on East west road that was seen selling kerosene far above the approved rate of fifty naira per liter all other filling stations visited said they last lifted kerosene from PPMC about eight months ago.  Meanwhile, head of the DPR team, Mr. Alex Ikeanyionwu and the head, retail outlet and marketing, Mr. Abdullahi Isah ordered the filling station to sell their kerosene at the approved rate.

Two of the filling stations that were suspected to be hoarding petrol were sanctioned..

Another one on East West road was also sanctioned for under delivery of petrol to customers.  At one of the stations sanctioned it was suspected that they only sold fuel at night and far above the approved rate. The manager of the filling station said their generator was giving them problem that was why they were not selling at the time the surveillance team came. But from on the spot assessment of situation on ground it was obvious the generator only came up at night when they had to sell at price far above the approved rate.

Speaking on the essence of the surveillance, the duo of Alex Ikeanyionwu and Abdullahi Isah of the DPR said it was to ascertain the real factors responsible for the seeming scarcity of petroleum product in the state.  They said from complaints from most of the dealers it was clear that the product was not enough. They said the responsibility of DPR was to ensure the product got to the public at approved rate.