Consumers are at the receiving end of sharp practices by filling station operators and attendants, while the Department of Petroleum Resources appears indifferent to their plight, STANLEY OPARA writes
Despite repeated threats of punishment by the regulatory agency, petroleum product marketers and depots in the country have continued to cheat consumers by selling above regulated prices and under-dispensing products.
In what many market watchers see as indifference on the part of the Department of Petroleum Resources, the filling stations seem to have perfected the art of short- changing customers by capitalising on the inadequate supply of products, especially petrol, which became apparent in the last quarter of 2012.
Filling stations in most states of the federation are currently selling petrol above the N97 per litre that the Federal Government pegged the price after last January’s protest against the removal of subsidy on the product.
Before now, Lagos and Ogun states appeared to be insulated against the sale of petrol above the official price, but findings by our correspondent on Saturday and Sunday showed that most filling stations in both states were now openly selling above N97 per litre.
In both states, as indeed other parts of the country, the product is now being sold at prics ranging from N105 to N120 per litre.
Our correspondent, who drove into a filling station along Ikotun road, Lagos on Sunday afternoon, was informed before buying the product that the price was N105 per litre, though the dispensing machine still displayed the regulated price of N97.
A consumer in Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos, narrated his experience to our correspondent on Saturday, “I drove into the filling station opposite my estate to buy petrol for my generator. When I told the attendant that I wanted to buy N1,500 worth in a 25-litre keg, she told me I would pay N100 extra and I consented, but what she sold barely passed the quarter of the keg.
“Ordinarily, the content of the keg should be above half even if as they usually claim, the keg can hold five litres extra because of expansion. I complained to the station manager and he was just giving excuses about attendants not being honest.”
Some oil marketers, who spoke to our correspondent on Sunday, however, blamed the malpractices on poor enforcement of directives on the side of the DPR.
They said most of the filling stations that indulge in the act of selling above the official price and under dispensing to customers had been doing so for a long time, while the regulator was turning a blind eye and pretending not to notice.
Our correspondent also gathered that the average ex-depot price of petrol per litre at Apapa, Lagos, as of Friday, was N96, a trend that had continued for months.
A marketer, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said DPR officials should ordinarily visit the depots and enquire why the ex-depot price had continued to soar for months above the recommended N87.90 per litre.
“There is the need for us to know why the DPR cannot make depot owners to sell petrol for N87.90 considering the over 30-day product sufficiency the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation claims to have. This is a serious problem because some people are busy making good money at the expense of Nigerians as this anomaly continues,” he said.
However, efforts made on Sunday to get DPR officials to speak on the allegation proved abortive. An email and several text messages sent to the spokesman, Mr. Belema Osibodu, were not replied, while his telephone line was switched off.
Last month, DPR had threatened to shut filling stations found to be under-dispensing petrol to consumers, but had yet to make good its threat even in the face of glaring evidences that the station owners and attendants were milking the buyers dry.
Osibodu had said in a statement issued in response to our correspondent’s enquiry then that errant petrol stations risked being shut for 60 days.
He had said, “As a further punishment, the stations will be stopped from further lifting and sale of all petroleum products for the period that they are under seal.
“The issue of stations with adjusted pumps,, which deliver less than a litre of fuel for the price of quantity invariably leads to overpricing when the actual litre is dispensed. The consumer is, indeed, being cheated.”
According to the regulator, this is a malpractice which its officials look out for, while on routine monitoring of petrol stations across the country.
Osibodu said, “It is also one of the reasons why the public has been availed of some DPR telephone lines to enable them make reports when such cases occur, which may not be known to us.
“DPR officials go to the stations with our own meters, which are used to monitor the stations’ dispensing pumps at regular intervals in addition to checking the pumps whenever on surveillance exercises. We also do this when cases of under-dispensing are discovered or complaints are lodged with us.”
The department had in October and November 2012 sealed 96 filling stations across the country for various sharp practices, including under-delivery of products, operating without valid licences or with expired licences, compromising safety, overpricing and diversion of products.
Selling petrol above the official price of N97 per litre or adjusting dispensing pumps to sell less than a litre for the price of a litre are some of the anomalies in a market that is undersupplied with products.
This trend is also prevalent when oil marketers decide to hoard products, even when the market is adequately supplied.
The current supply problem started in August last year when the System 2B pipeline was vandalised at Arepo along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State. The pipeline was shut after it caught fire as a result of activities of vandals.
The shutdown resulted in petrol distribution hitches, with states like Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Edo and Kwara severely affected.
With the closure, trucks that were hitherto loading at Shagamu, Ogun State had to come to depots in Apapa, Lagos to load.
Normally, NNPC pumps 11 million litres of petrol per day through the System 2B pipeline. But as a result of the shutdown, the corporation was struggling to supply about six million litres of petrol per day through private depots in Apapa.