The Department of Petroleum Resources has assured Cross River residents and beyond that there is enough product to serve for the Christmas season and beyond.
Mr Sircham Mohammed-Musa, DPR Operations Controller in the state gave the assurance on Thursday in Calabar during surveillance to some filling stations to ensure compliance with DPR guidelines.
According to Mohammed-Musa, the surveillance was carried out to ensure that filling stations operating in the state were selling at the government approved price and also dispensing the product accurately.
While inspecting Mainland oil and gas depot, he disclosed that the agency had issued warning to marketers to desist from any form of hoarding or face sanctions.
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“This is the kind of assurance we want to give to Nigerians because most of them believe that once it is end of the year, there will be some sort of artificial scarcity. This time, we are assuring Nigerians that the depots in Calabar are filled with petroleum product to serve all categories of consumers. As we speak, we have over 100 million litres in stock and this will serve all consumers during the Christmas season and beyond. Some vessels are currently at harbour, waiting for space to discharge the product. During surveillance today, we found out that some stations were selling at N142 per litre as against the government approved price of N145. This is why we go on surveillance and one of the benefits of deregulation. The price is down because the product is available,” he said.
On hoarding, he said that DPR was out to ensure that any product that is lifted from the depot gets to its final destination to serve the consumers. He further said that from the DPR assessment, petroleum marketers and depot owners were cooperating in ensuring stability of price and availability of the product.
“We are assuring Nigerians that there should be no panic buying in their minds; we are here to ensure that the product gets to all consumers at the government approved price,” he said.
A buyer at the NNPC filling station, Mr Chike Amadi said that the surveillance by DPR would make filling station owners to adhere to standard, adding that it was a thing of joy to have the product still sold at the government approved price without any panic buying or fears of artificial scarcity.
Juliet Ekwebelam
