Fuel Scarcity Mar Christmas Celebrations

Fuel scarcity has hit Lagos and some parts of Osun and Ogun State, as long queues resurfaced across the states.

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has said that this would be triggered by refusal of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) in releasing the approval for the first quarter fuel importation.

Long queues are visible in almost all the petrol stations that were selling the products while many remained under locks and key.

Forte Oil petrol station at Igbosere and Total petrol station at Okesuna, all on Lagos Island,
were not selling due to non availability of premium motor spirit, otherwise called petrol.

Oando petrol station was selling because many of its outlets visited around Alapere, Maryland, Ikoyi and Marina were dispensing petrol to motorists.

Mobil station adjacent Adeola Odeku on Victoria Island, Capital Oil and Oando petrol stations at Berger bus stop were also dispensing while MRS petrol station at Berger was out of stock.

Conoil station at Magboro in Ogun State was also dispensing when the Nigerian Tribune visited.

Meanwhile, the supervisor, Conoil petrol station at Magboro, Mr Micheal Arobaju, said his station had enough stock to last till next week.

On the reason for the sudden emergence of long queues, sources at Apapa depot were divided while confirming the cause of the scarcity.

Meanwhie, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its downstream subsidiary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) said there were over 32 days ample stock of petroleum products available for supply across the nation during the yuletide and beyond.

The corporation urged motorists not to engage in panic buying while also noting that the market was robust with premium motor spirit otherwise called petrol.

In a statement signed by the Group General Manager, NNPC stated that the noticeable queues in some petrol stations in Lagos were attributable to panic buying caused by reduced truck-out of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from depots in Apapa area of Lagos due to the gridlock created by the ongoing road construction in Apapa.

The corporation urged marketers affected by the Apapa road construction to load their petroleum products from its inland depot in Mosimi so as to support the “zero tolerance to fuel queues” policy across the country.

It appealed to marketers to immediately commence loading from the PPMC Mosimi depot to cover for the shortfall from Apapa.

Ajibola Aderonke is an auditor at professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY). She previously worked another Big 4 accounting firm PwC. She can be reached at ajibolaaderonke@gmail.com for ideas and suggestions. The post above and its ensuing comments, if any, is purely the opinion of the writer.