Liberians, on early Wednesday morning, woke up to the news of huge shortage of petroleum products at the storage facility of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), amid the already high cost of petroleum products on the market.
The radio service of the One Media House, HOTT FM 107.9, broke the news on its flagship talk show program, the HOTT Morning Live: there is a huge shortage of petroleum products, which could worsen the already tough economic condition of the country.
Quoting reliable sources in government and the petroleum sector, it is said that if nothing is urgently done to mitigate the situation the affected owners or importers could shut down their operations, thus threatening the survival of the petroleum sector.
The over 1.3 million gallons of AGO (products) reportedly disappeared between April 14 and June 17, 2022.
The owners/importers of the missing products are said to be demanding an immediate replacement of their products in order to enable them to remain in business and avert a possible collapse of the sector and a subsequent economic disaster that the country is not prepared for.
A similar incident occurred during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, under the infamous provisional lifting policy, but the products were replaced by the government of President George Weah in 2020.
The LPRC, since March 2020, assured that importers’ products would not be touched but would rather be secured/protected.
On this assurance, importers got encouraged, trusted the government, and therefore imported huge quantities of products to avoid shortages during the Russia-Ukraine war, but LPRC has allegedly mismanaged them.
Product lifting from LPRC terminal is subject to effective electricity to run the pumps & loading rack, technical team to open tanks & operate pumps and loading rack, importer or distributor delivery order, LPRC TLO, and security to open gates. All of these procedures are under LPRC Operation & Marketing Department, and are important to be indicated as no one can take 1.3 million gallons by tubes, bottles or gallons out of the LPRC compound.
However, the management of the LPRC has reacted to the allegation, describing it as farfetched and misleading.
Speaking to the Hot Pepper, Will Morris of the Public Relations Department of LPRC said it is unimaginable for 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products to disappear without trace.
According to Morris, 1.3 million gallons of gasoline or fuel can serve the entire country for over a month; as such, there would have been a major shortage of the product were the information to be true. He challenged the accusers to name the importers who have alarmed that their products were shortened at the LPRC facility.
