.. Lagos residents buy fuel in Jerry cans
….Petrol shortage enters 6th week
…..…. Independent marketers sell at N950/litre
…NNPC gives excuses
Fuel queues have resurfaced in several parts of Lagos as scarcity of petroleum hit Nigeria’s commercial centre.
Salient Times observed that in some areas of the state, motorists were spotted in the queues that snaked into the streets. The development caused gridlock around filling stations.
A litre of the product now sells for between N800-N1,000 in some filling stations, a move that has resulted in an increase in the cost of transportation
Some filling stations are not selling the product while black marketers have taken advantage of the situation to do brisk business.
The situation is not limited to Lagos. Some states in the northern region have experienced persistent scarcity of the product.
FG Reads Riot Act
But in a bid to tackle the situation, the Federal Government through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) threatened to withdraw licenses of filling stations hoarding fuel.
“NMDPRA embarks on a war against the illegal sale of petroleum products, especially PMS in jerrycans. Filling stations are advised to desist from servicing illegal peddlers; failure to do so would result in the suspension of retail licences,” the agency said in a tweet on its handle.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) last month blamed the scarcity of petroleum on a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.
“The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the tightness in fuel supply and distribution witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT is a result of a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels,” the NNPCL spokesman Olufemi Soneye said.
But he assured Nigerians that the NNPCL is working to resolve the situation.
“Similarly, the development was compounded by consequential flooding of truck routes, which has constrained the movement of PMS from the coastal corridors to the Federal Capital, Abuja,” it said.
LASTMA Deploy More Officers
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has deployed its officers to monitor traffic around filling stations.
LASTMA’s Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, Adebayo Taofiq quoted the agency’s general manager Olalekan Bakare-Oki as warning motorists against obstructing the flow of traffic.
He said the deployment became necessary due to reports of long queues at filling stations caused by motorists who park indiscriminately, thus blocking roads.
“We want our roads to be free-flowing; fuel queues should not become a burden for other road users in Lagos,” the LASTMA chief said.
Again, NNPC gives excuses, as petrol shortage enters 6th week
…. Independent marketers sell at N950/litre
As ongoing acute petrol shortage enters the sixth week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has again attributed it to “distribution challenges”.
The current petrol scarcity, the third in 2024, began early July with NNPC attributing it to logistics challenges faced in the transfer of the product from mother vessel to daughter vessels.
The company had said: “The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the fuel queues seen in the FCT and some parts of the country, were as a result of disruption of ship-to-ship (STS) transfer of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, between Mother Vessels and Daughter Vessels resulting from recent thunderstorm.
“The adverse weather condition has also affected berthing at jetties, truck load-outs and transportation of products to filling stations, causing a disruption in station supply logistics.
“The NNPC Ltd also states that due to flammability of petroleum products and in compliance with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) regulations, it was impossible to load petrol during rainstorms and lightning”.
But with the shortage not showing any sign of improvement, the national oil company in a two paragraph statement on Sunday said it regretted the situation.
NNPC Limited Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Mr Olufemi Soneye said: “The NNPC Ltd regrets the tightness in fuel supply witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT, which is as a result of distribution challenges.
“The Company further urges motorists to shun panic buying as it is working round the clock with relevant stakeholders to restore normalcy”.
Checks around Abuja Central Area yesterday showed that queues remained long at very few stations opened to consumers.
Outside the city centre, the situation remained dire with outlets operated by Independent marketers raising their pump price to N950 per litre against N720 per litre before the shortage began over a month ago.
The Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Ukadike told Salient Times the marketers had not received the product for some time.
Ukadike explained that it might not be unconnected with the impending delivery of premium motor spirit, pms, from the Dangote Refinery.
He noted that marketers were threading softly in order not to incur losses if the petrol price crashes as a result of supply from the refinery.
He said: “Supply has become epileptic again and we have not received adequate supply in recent times, remember we still depend on the importation of products. Once there is any shortage in supply or logistic problem or procrastination, then the impact is almost immediate.
“I also believe that since Dangote announced its petrol supply intention, those supplying NNPC are skeptical of bringing in products because they don’t want to incur the losses which they suffered when Dangote entered the market and slashed the price of AGO (Automated Gas Oil popularly known as diesel).
“These are market indices and someone has to be careful not to plunge itself into unnecessary deficit. For us independent marketers, most of the products come from NNPC Retails but the company has not supplied us with any product. They allocate products to tank farm owners”.
