The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has directed the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR not to seal off any petrol station but instead to auction petroleum products of any marketer found to be hoarding petroleum products at this time.
Dr Kachikwu, who took a monitoring tour of petrol stations in the federal capital, said that the NNPC was deploying all its available resources to bring down the heightening panic buying and appealed to Nigerians to be patient as they bring the situation under control.
In a joint press conference with the PPMC in Abuja on Friday, November 13, the NNPC had said that there was enough premium motor spirit to last the country over two weeks and expected import to last until mid-December and projected that the ensuing fuel crisis would ease out over the weekend.
Contrary to their expectations however, the crisis worsened, with fewer stations selling the product and from fewer pumps and with the heightening frustration from vehicles owners on fuel queues across states.
This led the Minister of State for Petroleum to take a trip round petrol stations in the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday.
He maintained that adequate quantity of petroleum products are deployed across states daily to tackle the situation and processes were ongoing to ensure that marketers receive their subsidy payments as soon as the Senate approval is given, in a matter of days.
Reacting to speculations that marketers were hoarding petroleum products in anticipation of a reduction in pump price of petrol, Dr Kachikwu said that the country and the sector cannot handle such financial obligation anytime soon.
He added that a price modulation framework is expected by January to address the critical issues for marketers over the long term.
