Fuel Queues In Abuja Worsen As Supply Crisis Lingers

Oil marketers on Monday attributed the widespread queues for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, in Abuja and environs to the lingering crisis in the supply of the commodity.

It was also learnt that many tank farms were not dispensing products on Monday due to hitches in the supply of petrol.

This led to severe queues in most filling stations in Abuja that dispensed PMS, as many others were locked up.

The two filling stations, Conoil and Total, located in front of the Abuja headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, had long queues of motorists.

The few filling stations that dispensed petrol on airport road, for instance, Major Oil, had long queues, as motorists spent hours in front of the outlets trying to get PMS.

Providing explanation on what led to the massive queues on Monday, the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, told our correspondent that the problem in the downstream sector had not been solved.

He stated that many depots were not dispensing products to retail outlets because they (depots) lacked products.

“The supply crisis in the downstream is still lingering. We raised this concern some weeks ago and they came out to say they have enough products, but right now we are seeing queues again due to the challenges,” Chinedu said.

He added, “Many tank farms or depots are not dispensing products. Only few marketers have products to sell to final consumers. The issue of price is still a concern, because some depots are still selling above the regulated rate.”

This came as IPMAN announced the emergence Debo Ahmed as its new President with effect from December 14, 2021, and assured motorists that it would continue to work hard to manage the concerns in the downstream oil sector.

In November, the concerns in the downstream made private depots to sell PMS at N159/litre instead of the approved rate N148/litre.

Depot owners had explained at the time that the rising depot cost was because the NNPC had yet to revert to naira denominated invoices for excess capacity for coastal movement using Import and Export Window rate as agreed by stakeholders.

The queues in Abuja prompted the reappearance of black marketers on major highways on Monday, as they sold petrol in jerrycans to motorists and other PMS users.