Numerous cities, including Lagos and Abuja, have experienced a sudden return of the Premium Motor Spirit (also known as fuel) line-ups, which had been gradually decreasing recently.
The PUNCH noted that despite NNPC’s assertion that it had imported more than 2.5 billion liters of gasoline enough to keep the nation wet during the holiday season, fuel scarcity actually got worse.
The new development demonstrates plainly that Nigerians will have a dreary Christmas because of the rise in gas prices that has resulted from the shortage of gasoline.
It was learned that the product is currently running low in several depots, which led to a decrease in deliveries from depots to retail locations all over the country.
Due to a scarcity of supplies, many filling stations in Abuja, especially those run by independent oil marketers, were closed, and on Wednesday, lines formed at the few locations of big marketers that did sell gasoline.
On Wednesday afternoon through the evening, lines formed at the Conoil and Total gas stations next to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s corporate office.
Similar to this, in the Federal Capital Territory, a filling station next to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel began to experience long lines in the evening even though the outlet’s gates were closed to vehicles as employees attempted to unload a fuel truck.
Oil merchants informed PUNCH’s correspondent that the Department of State Services’ intervention, which came after the DSS had asked the NNPCL to take action, was largely responsible for the brief period during which the lines were reduced.
Although they emphasized that this only temporarily alleviated the fuel situation, they claimed that the directive to the NNPCL and marketers forced the national oil company to discharge substantial quantities of the product.
The re-emerging lineups in Lagos, Abuja, and other cities, according to Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, demonstrated that the NNPCL still had a shortage of PMS.
Shuaibu said, “There’s a shortfall in supply but the NNPCL will be telling you not to panic, and that they have products when we cannot see them. Look at our depots, our tanks are empty.
“No petroleum marketer that used his money or borrowed money from the bank to build and invest in a filling station will lock up his station at the end of the day without any cogent reason.”
Asked whether depots in Abuja were empty, for instance, the Suleja Depot, Shuaibu replied, “It is. Any product you see today that comes through the Suleja Depot is by bridging.
“And when you go down south, you’ll be buying from depot owners at a high price. That is why the NNPCL should be held responsible. It should explain why the product is not in circulation.”
In addition, President of the Natural Oil and Gas Association of Nigeria, Benneth Korie, said that many filling stations were closing down as a result of the difficulty in obtaining PMS and the lack of availability of the product.
He said, “We are sacrificing a lot by doing this business with losses every day. Go and see the number of filling stations that have folded up in Nigeria. For the depots, how many of them have fuel to sell?”
“We are all marketers, but it depends on how you get your own product. They (major marketers) get their products from source (NNPCL) and we get ours from them (major marketers). So, don’t expect us to sell less than them, he stated.
He continued, “One major cause for the hike in the cost of petrol and its scarcity is the price of diesel. This is because you use diesel to transport the PMS across the country. The vessels that bring in the PMS use diesel to ferry the product.
“You use diesel to operate depots, filling stations and others. So, this is also a major cause for the high cost of petrol. If you bring the price of diesel down to about N170/litre as it was some months ago before jumping to the current high price, who would sell the PMS at the rate which its being sold now?”
