Nigerians continue to purchase fuel at very high prices across the country despite Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPC Ltd) assurance of product availability.
The NNPCL told Nigerians in a statement issued on Thursday, April 25, 2024, that it had resolved the logistic issues causing fuel queues across the country.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) wishes to clarify that the tightness in the supply of Premium Motor Spirit currently being experienced in some areas across the country is due to logistics issues, which have been resolved.
“It also wishes to reiterate that the prices of petroleum products are not changing, avoid panic buying as there is a sufficiency of products in the country”.
Howeve, the situation has not improved since the NNPC message to Nigerians. Long queues of vehicles continue to be seen at filling stations across the country.
The fuel situation in the ancient city of Kano worsened yesterday as most of the petroleum stations were shut.
Vanguard observed long queues in the few filling stations still dispensing the product in the state capital.
It was observed that independent marketers and some major marketers who were seen selling fuel sold it as high as between N850 and N900 per litre.
A motorist, Mustapha Bello, speaking on the development said: “The last fuel in my car was bought at N680 per litre some weeks back only for me to go back to buy another fuel at N850 per litre today (yesterday.’’
In the Kaduna metropolis, fuel scarcity persisted as most of the filling stations remained closed, claiming a shortage of the commodity.
In Kaduna North Local Government Area, there was a very long queue of motorists at the only filling station dispensing fuel along Ali Akilu Road, where customers alleged that petrol was being sold at N1,200 per litre.
“It was N900 on Friday, it was jerked to N1,200 today (yesterday) due to the persistent scarcity,” a motorist said.
He said a lot of people had gone to buy at the black market because they could not endure waiting for hours in the queue.
According to him, at the black market, they bought four litres for between N6,000 and N6,500 yesterday.
In Osun State, while some filling stations were open for business, yesterday, many of them that did not have petrol were closed, thus encouraging many motorists to patronise black market operators at higher costs of between N900 and N1,200 per litre.
They also passed the burden to commuters, most of whom were stranded at motor parks because transporters increased fares by more than 100 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, said yesterday that the petrol scarcity currently spreading to more states across the country will take at least two weeks to normalise.
The Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, said the product is not available in the country.
He said it has become a bit of a challenge to source the product because most refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance.
Ukadike also 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.
“On the part of NNPCL, which is the sole supplier of petroleum products in Nigeria, they have attributed the challenge to logistics and vessel problems.
“Once there is a breach in the international supply chain, it will have an impact on domestic supply because we depend on imports. I also have it on good authority that most of the refineries in Europe are undergoing turnaround maintenance, so sourcing petroleum products has become a bit difficult.
“NNPC Group CEO has assured us that there will be improvement in the supply chain because their vessels are arriving. Once that is done, normalcy will return. This is because once the 30-day supply sufficiency is disrupted, it takes two to three months to restore it.
“We expect that by next week or so, NNPC should be able to restore supply and with another week, normalcy should return”.
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