Fuel queues hit major cities of Lagos, Abuja and Ogun on Monday, forcing motorists to spend hours at filling stations.
In Lagos and Ogun states, The PUNCH witnessed long queues at several filling stations. Such as Mobil, Capital, Fatgbems, Enyo, TotalEnergies and NNPC.
Though there were products at these filling stations, which also sold at N165/litre. Motorists struggled to get gasoline with which to run their economic lives.
There were also queues in states bordering the FCT, including Nasarawa and Niger. Oil marketers blamed the development on the drop in supply, stating that the demand for petrol was currently higher. Than what was being provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
NNPC is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria, shouldering this responsibility for more then four years.
Speaking on the development, the President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, said, “Lagos is having queues today, Kaduna is almost not having any PMS in its retail outlets.
“So, it is simply a situation of demand overwhelming supply. The supply process is not efficient to be able to meet the demands for products”. “But there are no products in the retail outlets, which is why there will be queues. So, it clearly shows that demand has overwhelmed supply.”
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority had stated that there were over 32 days sufficiency of petrol by the NNPC.
Nigeria consumes an estimated 60 million litres of fuel per day. However, findings showed that by PPMC’s record, marketers loaded as much as 106 million litres per day as of April.
Diesel is a deregulated product. Checks on Monday showed that the product was sold between N780-N820/litre.
A former chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and Chairman/CEO, 11 Plc, Tunji Oyebanji, told The PUNCH that the scarcity was temporary.
Fuel sold at N165/ltr in places like Ikorodu, Anthony, Surulere, Ikeja, Festac, Ago and VI in Lagos on Monday. But prices were higher at Isheri and its neighbouring towns.
“Distinguish marketers, the Chairman and executives in conjunction with some senior members of our unit, organised a press conference where we explained our predicament with the current price of PMS at private depot. We explained that with the current price, there is no way we can sell less than N180 per litre”
According to him, “On this note, members are hereby advised to sell at a sustainable price within their environment. Just make sure that the price is on your pump. Kindly contact the Secretariat should you have any authority challenging your operations”
-Punch.
