By Our Reporter
Fuel scarcity has resurfaced in Lagos as most Nigerians struggle on endless queues to get the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS. Most filling stations were under lock and key, Sunday, as the few ones opened for operation were besieged by anxious motorists eager to fuel their cars and jerry cans.
At the NNPCL, where the product was sold at N580/litre, there were long queues of motorists who had spent hours on the queue fighting, shoving and quarrelling with one another to buy fuel. As a result, black marketers had a fields day selling to willing buyers at higher prices ranging from N700 to N900. The fear is that in the coming days, as the fuel scarcity bites harder, it will spread to other states across the country, thus worsening an already bad situation.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, reportedly admitted that the petrol scarcity currently spreading to more states across the country will take at least two weeks to normalize. Even as some newspapers report that the fuel scarcity experienced in Lagos and environs is as a result of a directive by the NNPCL that fuel trucks must first service the Federal Capital Territory before any other place. If this is true, predictions are that the scarcity might linger for a little longer.
This may explain the reason why, despite promises by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NPCL, of having adequate stock of the product, the scarcity still persist.
Newspaper reports pointed out that the oil sector sources said that hundreds of trucks loaded on Saturday were sent to Abuja based on the NNPCL directive. The papers also reported that investigations carried out reveal that the product was being rationed by the NNPCL, which now allocates 5,000 metric tonnes of fuel instead of 10,000MT to depots.
However, the Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, according to another newspaper report has refuted all such claims made saying the the product is not available in the country, as a result of the turn around maintenance embarked upon by most refineries in Europe.
Ukadike also reportedly blamed the acute shortage in supply on importation bottlenecks and the slow pace of marketers’ licence renewal by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA.
He disclosed that only 1,050 marketers out of 15,000 have had their licences renewed by NMDPRA.
He said: “The situation is that there is no product. Once there is a lack of supply or inadequate supply, what you will see is scarcity and queues will emerge at filling stations.
As the situation persist, motorists in the far North who may be forced to patronize the black market due to unavailability of the product may find themselves buying fuel at N2,000 per litre or more, if the petrol scarcity saga is not immediately resolved.
While the waiting is on, and all eyes are on the government and the NNPCL to bring the situation under control, Nigerians will bear the extra brunt lack of PMS, in the midst of a very harsh economy.
With additional reports from the Punch and Vanguard