Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has announced that majority of filling stations in Port Harcourt are into the business of under-dispensing Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as fuel, to customers.
Port-Harcourt Zonal Controller of DPR, Mr. Bassey Nkanga, made the announcement during a meeting with Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria and depot owners in Rivers State.
Nkanga regretted said the most filling stations adjusted their pumps to intentionally cheat the customers.
According to him, “There are so many stations that their pumps have been adjusted. The reason is for them to cheat the public.
“Statistically, over 30 percent of stations we have visited adjusted their pumps by more than five percent.
“So I want to use this medium to appeal to your members that they should not do that.”
The Zonal DPR boss announced that fake and unknown marketers in the state load products with ease at depots, while existing and registered petrol stations find it difficult to get products.
“It is said that existing petrol stations struggle to get products while fake petrol stations without any feasible outlet in the state get the products with ease.
“There is a major problem that we have observed, products are given to petrol stations with no name talkless of a licence, whereas we have complaints from marketers who have paid to NNPC for three months upfront. We have asked PPMC to ensure that they supply products to marketers with a license.”
Earlier, the Eastern Zonal Chairman of IPMAN, Mr. Dumbari Ben, charged the DPR to look into the issue of scarcity of supply of Automated Gasoline Oil, popularly called diesel, to marketers.
Ben explained that illegally refined diesel, popularly called kpo-fire, was now in huge circulation in most filling stations in Rivers State.
“Kpo-fire diesel is so much in Port Harcourt. We should be able to get quality AGO either through vessels or through refinery because the engines of our trucks are getting spoilt every day and we are not doing anything to address that.”
