Many depots for Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, are currently dry, resulting to fuel scarcity and Black marketers profiting from the scenario, offering prices as high as N1,300 and N1,500 per liter in some part of Lagos , Ogun and the FCT.
There were long queues witnessed in many filling stations which started building on Friday in Lagos and Abuja and has persisted.
On Saturday, while reacting to the long lineups and scarcity in some parts of the country, the Chief Corporate Communications Office of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Olufemi Soneye had claimed the difficulty in petrol supply and distribution was caused by a challenges faced with the discharge operations of a few of vessels, according to The Punch.
“The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the tightness in fuel supply and distribution witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT is as a result of a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels,” he said.
NNPC added that it was “working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in the operations.”
However, findings show that the situation deteriorated across the country on Sunday and as long lines were present at most gas stations in major cities, despite the NNPC’s assurance.
It was reported that there was no loading of trucks in the Apapa depots as of Sunday.
Nearly all of the depots had run out of fuel on Sunday after the limited supply was delivered on Saturday, according to a depot operator who pleaded anonymity.
The insider confirmed that the depots are dry, adding “supply gets late thereby affecting product load out.”
On Sunday, it was seen in FCT, Abuja that although the product was offered at a few filling stations for between N660 and N800 per litre, black marketers seized the the opportunity to raise the price to approximately N1,200 per litre, depending on where it was purchased.
This follows the statement by the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola that most depots were empty and that they were also waiting in line to load petrol.
“We, marketers, too are surprised that we couldn’t get fuel as we used to get at depots. We were worried too; we didn’t know the cause until the NNPC came out with a release on Saturday. Let’s just believe what the NNPC said, that they would arrest the situation,” the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria,” he said.
Fashola added, “I believe that within this week, everything will be normalised by the time they push products to the depots for marketers to pick from. Ours is to pick from the depots, take it into our stations, and dispense to the public. But for now, most of the depots are dry. The implication of that is that the stations will be dry too. Most of our members have run out of stock. That is the cause of the queues we are experiencing now.”
He stressed that Marketers were still purchasing PMS from private depots “at a price that is above N700/litre.”
“We are not yet getting direct supply from the NNPC as we are supposed to. What we are getting is so small compared to our population. That is why we are forced to go to the third parties, the private depot owners, and they are not helping matters with the kind of price they are putting out there.
“That is why independent marketers sell around N800 or so. Until we address this issue of direct supply, there will be issues. We keep shouting to the NNPC to look at that area properly because something is fundamentally wrong with our distribution channel and until they correct that, we will continue to have this issue of fuel scarcity.”
The spokesperson for the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, did not respond to inquiries on Sunday on when the fuel supply situation would improve up till when this report was filed.
A bus driver, Elijah Sunday at the Ketu motor garage in Lagos, lamented the struggle to get PMS.
“We have been finding it hard to get fuel for the past couple of days and it’s expensive, so, we had to increase the rates,” he said.
Fuel queues were observed at Nipco filling station at magboro, Ogun state along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. At the North West filling station close to CharlyBoy Bus Stop at Gbagada, Lagos and the NNPC station at Ogudu, there was a long line of vehicles.
Similar scenarios also played out in some residential areas in Abuja where black marketers sold their fuel at between N1,000/litre and N1,200/litre.
In many residential areas of Abuja, similar situations occurred as petrol was sold by illegal marketers for a price ranging from N1,000 to N1,200 per litre.
Residents of Idiroko, Ajegunle, Maun, Ijofin, Agosasa, Madoga and other areas in the Ipokia Local Government in Ogun State said they now patronise black marketers, following the ban on fuel supply in border areas.
“You know we have about four filling stations servicing the entire local government area because we are in the border areas. They sell at N870/litre now while black marketers sell at N1,200/litre. That is our punishment for living at the border,” a resident, Sam Adegoke, stated.
In Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, a large number of filling stations didn’t sell petrol, and those that did preyed on helpless customers who paid up to N1,000 to purchase fuel.
