By Vincent Nwanma, Simon E. Sunday (Abuja), Eugene Agha (Lagos), Zahraddeen Y. Shuaibu (Kano), Victor Edozie (Port Harcourt) & Maryam Ahmadu-Suka (Kaduna)
Residents of Abuja and its environs woke up yesterday, Sunday, to see a resurgence of petrol scarcity in the city, with queues at filling stations.
But the NNPC Limited, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and marketers are blaming restrictions induced by last weekend’s elections for the hiccup.
Nigerians have consecutively witnessed petrol scarcity for over one year with officials blaming adulterated fuel, hoarding by marketers, flooding, higher depot price, among others, despite over N4 trillion subsidy by the federal government.
Although the situation of fuel scarcity has improved, with some fuel stations selling regularly, the prices vary with the lowest and official rate at N195/l at NNPC stations while others sell between N210/l and N340/l.
A fuel-station attendant where they were selling at N210 said: “There are long queues. One has to be patient. Compared to last year, the situation has improved. We used to have fuel regularly. Before, we hardly sold for five hours a day, but now up to 12 hours there is still fuel.”
A tricycle rider, Bashir Abdullahi, said he doesn’t follow the long queue all the time even though it is cheaper and more profitable.
“One can spend the whole day on a queue and if you are not lucky it will finish before it gets to your turn. That is why I still patronize the private ones that are selling at N330 per litre.”
In Kaduna, independent marketers have hiked their pump price to N360 per litre while some sell at between N200 and N250 a litre.
This, our correspondent reports, has caused an increase in transport fare leaving residents at the mercy of transporters who charge exorbitant fares.
Our correspondent gathered that motorists are forced to leave their vehicles on the queue at various filling stations for days with the hope of getting the product at the official pump price of N194 per litre at NNPC stations.
Others, who cannot afford to leave their vehicles on the queue are at the mercy of independent marketers who inflate their prices while black-marketers thrive.
A motorist, Abdulwaheed Ibrahim said: “The whole fuel situation has taken another dimension, it’s so unfortunate that after I queued up for over four hours at a filling station, I was told the fuel had finished just when it was about to get to my turn.”
Another resident, Mary Sunday, said she has learnt to also cut corners to get fuel.
She said, “ I give them N300 and gain access into the station when I am assured of getting fuel.”
In Rivers State, there is no petrol scarcity in Port Harcourt, Oyigbo and Eleme areas. However, the price is N300/l causing queues at stations that sell cheaper.
Gov’t agencies, marketers blame break
In the meantime, NNPC and some marketers believe the queues will fade in days.
In a statement, NNPC Ltd blamed election restrictions for the scarcity. It said there is 2.1 billion litres of petrol in stock, implying there should be no scarcity of the commodity in the country. It therefore asked Nigerians to not engage in “panic buying”.
“The appearance of pockets of queues in Abuja and some parts of the country, is largely due to restrictions in businesses and movement, to allow for the conduct of the presidential and NASS elections and enable Nigerians to exercise their civic right.
“However, operations have now resumed at the depots and trucks are being dispatched to various parts of the country. We expect normalcy to be restored in a few days.”
According to its latest updates, a total of 2.1bn litres of petrol stock, representing 0.9bn litres in all the land depots nationwide and 1.2bn litres on marine vessels, is available. NNPC said that is equivalent to 35 days’ sufficiency as of 4th March 2023.
“We plan to close the month of March 2023 with about 2.8bn litres, which is equivalent to 47 days of sufficiency,” it said in the statement.
Ahead of the state-wide election, the company said it will work with its partners and stakeholders to ensure a seamless distribution of petroleum products during the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
On its part, NMDPRA said operations in loading depots have fully resumed after the restriction of movements during the election period.
In a statement issued by the authority’s chief executive, Farouk Ahmed, the regulator said it is “working with other stakeholders to mitigate the slight tightness being experienced in the distribution of petrol.”
It also revealed that the stock sufficiency stands at 35.39 days for petrol, 34.86 days for diesel and 31.36 days for kerosene.
Reacting to the scarcity, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) on Sunday in Lagos, insisted that there is enough product.
The Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr Clement Isong, told Daily Trust that the current scarcity of petrol in some parts of the country was due to restriction during the February 25, presidential and National Assembly elections.
He said, “There is nothing like scarcity of petrol. We have enough in stock. The restriction of movement in the last general elections affected supply as the distribution network was cut off.
“Trucks that took products to the North and other parts of the country couldn’t return to Lagos to pick more products for supply.
“But starting from Monday, normalcy will return as trucks will lift products from depots in Lagos up country,” Isong noted.
