Fuel Queues Resurface In States Amid Supply Shortages

 

 

Queues for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol have continued to grow as the country is being thrown into a fresh round of fuel scarcity despite assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that it has resolved the cause of fuel shortages in the country.

NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye had in a statement on Thursday emphasised that the prices of petroleum products were not changing, while also clarifying that the tightness in supply currently being experienced in some parts of the country, as a result of logistics issues, and that has been resolved.

However, as of Monday morning, Channels Television witnessed a surge in the number of vehicle queues at filling stations in parts of Lagos State, with prices as high as ₦700 per litre.

The same situation is being reported in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Benue, Sokoto, and other parts of the country, as motorists grapple with the skyrocketing fuel prices.

While prices have surged to about ₦700 per litre and above at filling stations belonging to members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigerian (IPMAN), few owned by the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) sell at around ₦610 per litre and above.

NNPCL stations currently sell at ₦568 per litre.

Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, had 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.”

 

Channels Television monitored the situation since the weekend and noticed that many stations are under lock and key. Most filling stations along the entire stretch from Berger through Ikeja, Ogba, to Agege, didn’t welcome customers.

 

 

Despite the scarcity, only a handful of stations along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, from Oshodi to Tollgate, sold products, thereby attracting longer queues even with prices over ₦700 per litre.

The situation has, in turn, prompted black marketers to peddle the product to desperate motorists at exorbitant rates of up to ₦1000 to ₦1200 per litre.

 

Nigerians React

 

 

Nigerians have taken to social media platform, X, to express frustration over the development.

An X user with the handle @Chukky_E wondered what could have caused the scarcity in the first place.

“Abeg can someone explain why there is a scarcity?” he wrote.

@AdventurousAlec wrote, “Good news petrol is 1500 in my location, thanks to our never failing Federal government with a mindset of baby. Anyways I told you so.”

On his part, @OkoliStepenIz3 wondered the reason for the disparity in prices of the product in the South versus the North.

He said, “Never in Nigeria have fuel prices go higher in the north than in the South, why is fuel selling over ₦900 in the North and less than ₦800 in the South?”

@OkoliStephenIz3 argued that fuel prices have remained the same until Tinubu’s administration.

“You are right but the same volume of fuel never changed until Tinubu came Fuel prices were the same during Buhari and Goodluck amidst the distance,” he said, as @DrPromise_e added that a litre of the product was told at N820 per litre in his area.

@emmysizzle wrote, “610….at Conoil, Herbert Macaulay Yaba, this morning . The guy at the pump collected 500 naira from everyone for “transfer fee” though as POS wasn’t working and we could only transfer to his personal account”, as @Tolha_ said it was sold at N870 per litre.

“Bought #870 yesterday, on getting to the same fuelling station this evening, they have changed it to 900 per litre.

@baba_nihmat said, “Have been buying black market since Wednesday at 1200 per action bitter bottle… Ogun state is useless.”