FUEL SCARCITY: Despite persistent queues, NNPC claims normalcy has returned

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) claims it has successfully cleared petrol queues in Abuja and Lagos and has moved to increase truck-outs to other states to restore normalcy to the petrol supply and distribution across the country.

This is in sharp contrast to the situation on ground, where motorists in Abuja and Lagos areas still queue at the few filling stations which have the product.

In Lagos, many filling stations in the country claim not to have the stock compounding the already dire situation, while the few that have mostly dispense from one pump, with a long line of vehicles, which usually results in traffic jams along the roads where the filling stations are situated.

The scarcity of petrol which began a few days to the Yuletide celebrations has refused to abate, with many motorists resulting to black market sellers who seem to have petrol in unlimited quantity.

But the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who spoke on Friday after visiting some filling stations in Abuja, said “As far as truck out is concerned, we have more than doubled the number of trucks that are going out into the country. Yesterday (Friday) we loaded and distributed products from coastal and strategic inland depots like Jos. We loaded I,733 trucks yesterday and the actual normal number of trucks we required to keep the country wet is about 700 but we have been doing 800 to 850 trucks before the petrol scarcity.

Read also: Appearing to contradict Osinbajo, NNPC says Buhari authorised fuel subsidy payment

“We have stepped up the number of truck-outs to 1,733 as a minimum and we have sustained this for a week and there will be more than enough products for motorists in the weeks ahead,” Dr. Baru stated.

Dr. Baru said that the petrol scarcity was self-inflicted following the sharp practices of some unscrupulous marketers who took to hoarding and diversion of the product.

“We have maintained our position that this scarcity is self-inflicted by marketers. The NNPC has more than 30 day sufficiency of supply of petroleum products, especially PMS and at the current consumption rate of about 27 to 28million litres per day, we should be very comfortable until the end of January 2018 even if we don’t import a drop of petrol into this country,” Dr. Baru reassured.

Dr. Baru appealed to marketers who have diverted petroleum products to please be mindful of their brothers and sisters and stop profiteering, stressing that they bought PMS at N133.28k per litre apart from their profit margin and a transportation cost of N7.20k per litre.

He appealed to motorists to cooperate with the NNPC in restoring normalcy to the petrol situation by reporting marketers who sell PMS above N145 per litre to the emergency lines of the DPR and NSCDC.

The marketers have however denied the claims by the NNPC boss, as they have also put the blame for scarcity of petrol in the country at the doorstep of the corporation.

 

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