Empty tankers are currently at various depots in Lagos waiting to load Premium Motor Spirit (a.k.a petrol), for onward delivery to states across.
This is following worsening the scarcity of fuel in the West African country.
Although, some of the trucks had started loading, the supply of the product by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) was still not enough, according to Punchng.com’s report.
Oil marketers confirmed the commencement of loading, but expressed fear that the queues may not disappear till Friday.
Techeconomy’s correspondent sighted long queues of empty tankers, moving from Barlet bus stop towards Ijesha onward Mile 2 axis.
Long fuel queues have repeatedly rocked capital city Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger, and neighbouring states in recent times, resurfaced in Lagos on Sunday.
However, Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of NNPC, had said the oil firm was working hard to tackle the fuel supply challenges, stressing that the queues should clear by mid-week.
“It’s just an evacuation challenge out of Apapa (ports in Lagos) from the vessel. But we are working on it. It should be resolved. I’m very sure that fuel scarcity will be cleared out by Wednesday,” Soneye stated.
However, when contacted on Monday for updates on the fuel supply situation, Abubakar Maigandi, the national president of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, said marketers would only supply what they got from NNPC.
On his part, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, the national publicity secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, said the challenges in the downstream oil sector were compounded by the recent nationwide hunger protests.
“Aside from the fact that there is not enough supply, the recent protests disrupted activities in the downstream oil sector. We are still struggling to sort that one out and there is also the challenge of low supply of petrol,” he stated.
NNPC is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria. Other dealers stopped importing the commodity due to their inability to access the United States dollar required for PMS importation.
Responding to an enquiry on why the queues for petrol had failed to clear across the country, Maigandi said, “In our case, we depend on the supply of products from NNPC. So, if they supply products to us, we will move the products to our filling stations.
“They are saying that they have some challenges. So, we are still waiting. Some of our trucks are already at the loading stations of depots waiting to load petrol. Many of our trucks are there.
“But I know that there will be some changes soon because some trucks have started loading. However, it is not every depot that has products now. Some of the depots don’t have products and many of these depots are in Lagos.”
When asked when the queues would clear, the IPMAN president replied, “I cannot say anything about that for now because it depends on the way fuel is being released. So, it depends on the supply from NNPC.”
The fuel queues in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country continued to spread despite the assurances from NNPC that the queues would clear by Wednesday.
