Contractual matters between mother and daughter vessels caused the current petrol scarcity, Festus Osifo, President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has disclosed.
Mother vessels are large ocean-going ships that deliver products in bulk, while daughter ships receive such products from them.
Queues recently resurfaced in filling stations amid a scarcity of petrol that has led to an increase in transport costs.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, on April 25, attributed the shortfall in supply to logistics issues.
Speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme on Sunday, Osifo, who also doubles as the president of Trade Union Congress (TUC), said the logistic issue had been resolved.
Said he: “Today, just by what has been explained by the NNPC, that that is a logistics issue.
“Breaking down what that logistics issue is, as at today, there are some challenges from our findings, because we try to relate with our members in NNPC as well as our members in NMDPRA.
“So, part of the challenge today is that the bigger vessels — the tankers — they bring this PMS to our shores”.
The PENGASSAN president said when shipowners bring the products, the daughter vessels are needed to take the products from the bigger vessels down to the tank farms where it could be distributed to the retail outlets.
Added he: “But, as it is today, there is a break down because there were some contractual issues that actually happened in there. But, I think that has been sorted”.
However, he said the revamping of the local refineries would mitigate this kind of occurrence in the future.
